2026-07-27T17:07:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
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更新时间：2026年7月27日 / 美国东部时间下午5:40 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
前总统乔·拜登多年来一直试图将这些音频录音保密，如今终于得以公开。
这些约70小时的录音被提供给哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，曾在2024年特别检察官的报告中被引用，报告称拜登在其家中留存了大量包含机密信息的笔记。
现年83岁的拜登在录音中曾对其代笔作家马克·兹沃尼策说道：“其中一些内容可能属于机密……所以要小心。我不确定……虽然没有标注机密，但——”
在录音的另一段内容中，他再次说道：“接下来我要讲的这个，嗯，是机密内容……”
这些录音是拜登2017年回忆录《答应我，爸爸：充满希望、艰辛与目标的一年》的创作期间录制的。出版后的书中并未被指控包含任何机密材料。
这些录音首次引发广泛关注和争议，是在2024年2月司法部特别检察官罗伯特·赫尔在一份关于拜登处理机密文件的报告中提及它们之后。赫尔是在拜登家中和私人办公室发现标注为机密的副总统任期内的文件后展开调查的。他最终并未建议提起诉讼。
赫尔还将拜登描述为“难以回忆起事件”，表现出“心智能力衰退”，并早在2016年就存在“极其缓慢”的对话。在录音中，拜登有时说话断断续续。如果他在那段时间确实存在记忆障碍，其迹象是微妙的。
有一次，拜登似乎思绪中断，说道：“好吧——我刚才要问你什么来着？别的事……呃……嗯。我的天，我想不起别的了。”
这些录音是在保守派非营利组织“监督项目”发起为期两年的法庭斗争后公开的。该组织称其目标是“揭露并铲除政府中的腐败”。
拜登的法律团队最初曾试图阻止录音公开，但在一系列不利裁决后，不再继续追究此事。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻已就此联系拜登的律师。赫尔发布报告时，拜登曾对记者表示：“我没有分享过机密信息。我没有把机密信息分享给我的代笔作家。”他还补充说，自己不知道装有机密文件的箱子是如何被放到车库里的。
提供给哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的录音中，拜登向兹沃尼策描述了可能涉及机密的会议，包括“一场与中央情报局所有人参加的重要会议”“一场在情况室举行的重要会议”以及“一场美国国防部向总统做简报的长会”。
在2016年10月10日的录音中，他告诉兹沃尼策，自己持有白宫并不知情的笔记。
“在这段时间里，我做了大量笔记……他们不知道我有这些东西，”他说道。
拜登还在2017年2月16日的录音中表示：“我刚在楼下找到了所有的机密文件”——赫尔将这句话作为证据，证明拜登在卸任总统一个月后，仍在弗吉尼亚州的出租屋中存放机密材料。赫尔称他的语气“平淡无奇”，并表示他可能很快就忘了这些文件的存在。
但拜登在一些录音中表现得更为谨慎，2016年11月3日，他向代笔作家提及自己“与总统讨论的非机密部分”，当时他仍在担任副总统。
赫尔调查了拜登是否非法存放和分享机密信息，并在报告中举了多个例子，包括时年75岁的拜登向兹沃尼策展示奥巴马政府期间“国家安全委员会会议的机密笔记”。
但赫尔得出结论称，司法部不太可能定罪，部分原因是陪审团会支持拜登，将他视为“一位富有同情心、动机良好、记忆力不佳的老人”。
赫尔在解释不起诉的决定时写道：“拜登先生2017年与兹沃尼策的录音对话往往极其缓慢，拜登先生努力回忆事件，有时甚至费力地阅读和转述自己笔记本中的内容。”
“对于这些陪审员来说，拜登先生在2017年2月和4月出现的明显失误和差错，可能会显得与他在兹沃尼策的采访录音以及我们对他的采访中表现出的心智能力衰退和记忆缺陷相一致，”报告中写道。
去年，司法部公布了2023年拜登与赫尔团队面谈的录音。拜登有时声音沙哑、说话断断续续，还曾一度努力回忆儿子博去世的年份以及唐纳德·特朗普总统首次当选的年份。
有关拜登年龄和心智敏锐度的质疑贯穿了他的总统任期，当镜头捕捉到他言语含糊、眼神空洞或在楼梯上绊倒的瞬间时，这些质疑就会升温。白宫多次试图淡化这些担忧，强调拜登在关键活动中的掌控力，例如他的最后一次国情咨文演讲。
但拜登的连任竞选在2024年6月与时任候选人唐纳德·特朗普的一场糟糕辩论中突然终结，当时他表现得反应迟缓、思维混乱。
在唐纳德·特朗普的海湖庄园被发现机密材料数月后，拜登的家中和办公室也被发现了机密文件。拜登在接受《60分钟》采访时称特朗普处理这些材料的方式“完全不负责任”。就特朗普的案件而言，另一名特别检察官决定对他提起诉讼，后来这些诉讼被驳回。赫尔称两起案件“存在几个实质性区别”，包括特朗普被指控妨碍司法公正。
监督项目的姊妹非营利组织传统基金会于2024年2月9日根据《信息自由法》提出申请，要求获取“特别检察官赫尔在撰写报告中有关约瑟夫·R·拜登总统记忆力和心智能力章节时所依据的记录”。
当拜登政府的司法部一个月内未移交文件时，监督项目在华盛顿特区联邦法院提起诉讼，要求强制公开录音。
监督项目负责诉讼的副总裁杰夫·克拉克告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，特朗普执政时期，司法部同意移交相关文件。
但拜登自己的律师加入了这场法律诉讼，阻止了信息披露，直到联邦上诉法院在7月20日作出不利于拜登的裁决。
监督项目在一份声明中称这一裁决是“彻底的、全面的胜利”。
拜登凭借2017年的这本书获得了800万美元的预付稿酬，并计划于11月推出续集《答应我，美国》，详述他的总统任期、2024年连任竞选以及退选的决定。
丹尼尔·克莱德曼对本文亦有贡献。
Biden tapes, released after legal battle, include references to notes containing classified material
2026-07-27T17:07:00-0400 / CBS News
By
Updated on: July 27, 2026 / 5:40 PM EDT / CBS News
Audio recordings that former President Joe Biden fought for years to keep private have now been released.
The roughly 70 hours of audio recordings, shared with CBS News, were cited in a 2024 special counsel’s report, which said Biden kept volumes of notes at his home that included classified information.
Biden, now 83, is at one point in the recordings heard telling his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer: “Some of this may be classified … So, be careful. I’m not sure … It’s not marked classified but —”
At another point in the recordings he says again: “The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified …”
The recordings were made while Biden worked with his ghostwriter on his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” No classified material was ever alleged to be in the published book.
The tapes first became the topic of intense scrutiny and controversy when they were referenced by Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur in a February 2024 report on Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur began investigating after documents that were marked classified, dating back to his time as vice president, were found in his home and private office. He ultimately did not recommend charges.
Hur also characterized Biden as “struggling to remember events,” exhibiting “diminished faculties” and having “painfully slow” conversations as early as 2016. On the tapes, Biden speaks haltingly at times. If he is struggling with his memory during that period, the signs of it are subtle.
At one point, Biden seems to lose his way, saying: “Alright — what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh gosh. I can’t think of anything else.”
The recordings were released after a two-year court battle by the Oversight Project, a conservative nonprofit that says its goal is to “expose and root out corruption in government.”
Biden’s legal team had initially sought to enjoin the release, but after a series of adverse rulings, declined to pursue the matter further.
CBS News has reached out to an attorney for Biden on the matter. At the time of the Hur report, Biden told reporters: “I did not share classified information. I did not share it with my ghostwriter.” He added that he wasn’t aware how boxes containing classified documents ended up in his garage.
Recordings shared with CBS News include Biden describing to Zwonitzer potentially classified meetings, including “a big meeting with the CIA and everyone,” “a big meeting down in the Situation Room,” and “a long meeting where DOD brief … POTUS.”
In an Oct. 10, 2016, recording, he tells Zwonitzer that he has notes that the White House was not aware of.
“I have extensive notes over this period of time… They didn’t know I have this,” he said.
Biden also says in a Feb. 16, 2017, recording, “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs” — a comment that Hur cited as evidence Biden had classified material in his Virginia rental home, despite leaving office a month earlier. Hur called his tone “matter-of-fact” and said he may have quickly forgotten about the documents.
But Biden appears to be more cautious in some recordings, telling his ghostwriter about the “non-classified part of my discussion with POTUS” on Nov. 3, 2016, while he was still serving as vice president.
Hur investigated whether Biden illegally stored and shared classified information, and highlighted examples in his report, including Biden, then age 75, showing Zwonitzer “classified notes from a National Security Council meeting” of the Obama administration.
But Hur concluded the Justice Department would be unlikely to achieve a conviction, in part because the jury would side with Biden, viewing him as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Justifying his decision not to prosecute, Hur wrote that “Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”
“For these jurors, Mr. Biden’s apparent lapses and failures in February and April 2017 will likely appear consistent with the diminished faculties and faulty memory he showed in Zwonitzer’s interview recordings and in our interview of him,” the report said.
Last year, the Justice Department released audio recordings from Biden’s 2023 interview with Hur’s team. At times, Biden spoke in a hoarse and halting tone, and he struggled at one point to remember the year when his son Beau died and the year when President Trump was first elected.
Questions about Biden’s age and mental acuity dogged him throughout his term, flaring up when moments of slurred speech, apparent vacancy or tripping on stairs were caught on camera. The White House repeatedly sought to downplay those concerns, highlighting Biden’s command during key events such as his final State of the Union address.
But Biden’s run for a second term ended abruptly after he appeared slow and confused during a disastrous June 2024 debate with then-candidate Donald Trump.
Classified documents were found in Biden’s home and office several months after classified materials were found at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. Biden called Mr. Trump’s handling of those materials “totally irresponsible” in an interview with “60 Minutes.” In Mr. Trump’s case, a separate special counsel decided to file charges against him, which were later dismissed. Hur said there were “several material distinctions” between the cases, including that Mr. Trump was accused of obstructing justice.
The Heritage Foundation, the Oversight Project’s sister nonprofit, filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act on Feb. 9, 2024, asking for the “records relied upon by Special Counsel Hur in drafting passages in the Report relating to President Joseph R. Biden’s memory and mental faculties.”
When the Biden administration’s Justice Department failed to turn over the files for a month, the Oversight Project sued in Washington, D.C., federal court to compel the audio’s release.
Jeff Clark, the Oversight Project’s vice president of litigation, told CBS News that when Mr. Trump took power, the Justice Department agreed to hand over the files.
But Biden’s own lawyers joined the legal case and prevented disclosure, until a federal appeals court ruled against Biden on July 20.
In a statement, the Oversight Project called the ruling a “complete and total victory.”
Biden received an $8 million advance for the 2017 book, and plans to release a sequel, “Promise Me, America,” in November, detailing his presidency, his 2024 reelection run and the decision to step aside.
Daniel Klaidman contributed to this report.
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