Former President Joe Biden on Friday abandoned his legal fight to keep audio recordings and transcripts of his memoir interviews out of Republican hands, ending the case in Washington federal court days after a divided D.C. Circuit panel cleared the way for release to the House Judiciary Committee and the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The dismissal closes out a monthslong effort to shield roughly 70 hours of conversations Biden held with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer at his Delaware home in 2016 and 2017 while preparing his memoir "Promise Me, Dad."

Special Counsel Robert Hur obtained the recordings during his investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents and drew on them in declining to bring charges.

Biden sued the Justice Department in May, arguing release of the material would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden's privacy," and separately intervened in a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by Heritage.

A three-judge D.C. Circuit panel on Monday denied his emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal in the Heritage case by a 2-1 vote.

Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judge Gregory Katsas wrote that the public has a "weighty" and "significant" interest in scrutinizing a special counsel's decision not to charge a former vice president over classified material.

Weighing the department's redactions, which stripped references to Biden's family and to sensitive personal topics, the majority concluded that "any remaining incursion on personal privacy from disclosure of the now-redacted materials likely does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure."

U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, dissented, writing that Biden had shown a "substantial privacy interest" in conversations recorded inside his home during a criminal investigation "that did not lead to an indictment."

She warned that denying the injunction would moot the case by disclosing the material before merits briefing.

The panel had stayed its order until Aug. 3 to let Biden weigh a rehearing petition or a Supreme Court application.

His voluntary dismissal, filed less than a week later, forecloses both.

Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said the former president "disagrees" with the ruling but "respects the courts and the vital role an independent judiciary plays in a healthy democracy."

The Justice Department reversed the Biden-era position in February and told the district court it would turn over redacted transcripts and audio to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and to Heritage.

Hur's 2024 report described Biden reading classified notes to Zwonitzer "nearly verbatim" during several sessions and portrayed his memory as diminished, findings central to the decision not to prosecute.

With the appellate stay set to lift Aug. 3, the material can flow to congressional investigators and the conservative think tank absent further intervention.