Trump reacts to Biden lawsuit seeking to block Justice Department from releasing audio of unflattering interviews

President Trump flanked by Marco Rubio to the left and Pete Hegseth to the right.

Former President Joe Biden on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the Department of Justice from releasing audio and transcripts of interview sessions recorded in 2016 and 2017 that were at the center of an investigation led by a special counsel. On Wednesday, Trump reacted to the lawsuit when asked about it by a reporter at his Cabinet meeting.

"Why do you think that Joe Biden is trying to sue the Department of Justice -- former President Joe Biden -- to have his tapes that he did interviews on blocked from the American people hearing them? Do you think he's trying to hide something," Cara Castronuova of LindellTV could be heard asking Trump during a question-and-answer session of the Cabinet meeting.

"I'd like to see it," Trump responded. "I would like to see what he has to say because we can never allow what happened to this country to happen. The man was grossly incompetent and the Democrats -- I call them the Dumbocrats because the policy is so bad -- but they came very close to destroying our country. We can never let it happen again." 

Trump, gesturing to Castronuova, added, "I hope that you're able to produce that. I think it would be very interesting reading for people." Prior to his remarks at the Cabinet meeting, Trump reacted to news of the lawsuit in a Truth Social post, calling Biden "a crooked politician."

The information Biden is suing to keep under wraps includes as many as 70 hours of audio tapes and corresponding transcripts made during interviews he gave to Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter behind his 2017 memoir, CBS News reported. The audio recordings, likely unflattering to the former president, later were obtained by Robert Hur, the special counsel appointed to investigate Biden's mishandling of classified information. 

Hur ended the investigation in 2024 without pressing charges, but in his report said the decision to not bring charges against Biden, who was in the final year of his lone term at the time, partially hinged on how he came across in those interviews. 

Joe Biden looking confused during his lone debate with Trump in 2024 before being replaced with Kamala Harris.

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," Hur wrote in the report. "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him -- by then a former president well into his eighties -- of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

Until mid-2024, Biden's mental acumen was a source of deep concern among many on the right, although the Democrats, in coordination with the mainstream media, worked feverishly to cover up Biden's failing mental state. The misinformation campaign came crashing down in dramatic fashion on June 27, 2024, after Biden delivered a disastrous performance during his only debate with Trump that was hosted by CNN. Less than a month later, Biden was replaced as the the nominee by his vice president, Kamala Harris.

Lawyers for Biden have argued that the audio and transcripts are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, which the House Judiciary Committee has invoked in trying to compel the Justice Department to release the interviews. Unless a court interferes, ABC News reported, the Justice Department has indicated the interviews will be released on June 15. Below, watch Trump's remarks on the matter.