Jim Jordan, Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman, subpoenaed President Joe Biden’s ghostwriter Friday for records related to prior work the writer did for the president, which may have involved classified material.
The subpoena was issued to Mark Zwonitzer, who asked the ghostwriter to turn over the requested material, including work contracts, recordings, communications, and transcripts of interviews he had with Biden, by April 12.
Zwonitzer worked with Biden for months to help him write his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad.” However, former special counsel Robert Hur found during his yearlong investigation that Biden had disclosed classified information to the writer during the book’s writing process.
Additionally, Hur found that after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him to investigate President Biden’s handling of classified materials, Zwonitzer tried to delete audio recordings he had saved of his interviews with Biden. However, Hur said the FBI was able to recover the recordings.
In a letter to Zwonitzer, Jordan noted that on February 8, the day the Department of Justice published Hur’s report, Biden held a press conference during which he “denied sharing classified information with you during your work as his ghostwriter,” a point “unequivocally” contradicted by Hur’s report.
Jordan also questioned Hur directly about Zwonitzer in a hearing this month, further probing Hur’s revelation that Biden had “strong motivations” to hang on to classified material, including his contributions to policy in Afghanistan, to assist with his memoir.
Hur had discovered that during hours of interviews, Biden “read aloud from his notebooks in his private home,” and Biden “provided raw material to his ghostwriter detailing meetings and events that would be of interest to prospective readers and buyers of his book.”
Zwonitzer worked with Biden for several months
The special counsel noted Biden worked with Zwonitzer for several months on the book and that Biden received an $8 million advance for it.
“The very guy who was helping Joe Biden get the $8 million…the motive for Joe Biden to disclose classified information, to retain classified information, which he definitely knew was against the law. When you get named special counsel, what’s that guy do? He destroys the evidence,” said Jordan of Zwonitzer during the hearing, “That’s the key takeaway in my mind.”
Jordan informed Zwonitzer he was issuing the subpoena after Louis Freeman, the ghostwriter’s attorney, signaled initially to Congress that his client would provide the requested material voluntarily. Days later, he reneged and said Zwonitzer would only provide the material if it was subpoenaed.
