A federal appeals court ruled against former President Biden on stopping the release of recordings and transcripts of interviews with his ghostwriter.

July 21 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court ruled against former President Joe Biden on preventing recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave to his ghostwriter from going public.

The decision released Monday came from the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower court told the U.S. Department of Justice that it couldn't release the redacted information.

The 2-1 decision said there was "substantial" public interest in releasing the material.

"We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure," Judges Sri Srinivasan and Gregory Katsas wrote in their majority opinion.

The conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation had filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2024 based on reports of Biden's handling of sensitive and secret government records during the years between serving as vice president and becoming president. It sued in 2024 to get access to the documents and recordings. Earlier this year, the Justice Department announced it would release the documents.

The appeals court suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow Biden time to appeal.

Judge Florence Pan dissented.

"In my view, Biden has shown a substantial privacy interest," Pan wrote in her opinion. "The conversations at issue took place in Biden's home, and the recordings of them were obtained by the government in the course of a criminal investigation that did not lead to an indictment."

The recordings came from conversations Biden had in his home with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, who helped write Promises to Keep, released in 2007, and Promise Me, Dad, published in 2017.

T.J. Ducklo, a representative for Biden, said, "President Biden's conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way. Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution. It's wrong, and while President Biden disagrees with today's decision, he also respects the courts and the vital role an independent judiciary plays in a healthy democracy."