Laura Collins, Chief Investigative Reporter, Manhattan, New York, Dailymail.Com
15:35 February 12, 2024, updated 17:58 February 12, 2024
- Joe Biden’s unassuming ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, 61, broke cover last Friday when he left his New York City apartment to run errands.
- Zwonitzer, who worked with the president on two memoirs in 2007 and 2017, told DailyMail.com that he “couldn’t speak” about the investigation.
- Last week, the Justice Department said it was considering charging Zwonitzer with obstruction of justice after he destroyed recordings of his conversations with Biden, 81.
President Joe Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer may not be used to being in the spotlight, but that’s exactly where the unassuming writer finds himself.
Since it was revealed last Thursday that the Justice Department is considering charging the 61-year-old author with obstruction of justice after learning he destroyed recordings and notes of an interview with President Joe Biden. , Mr. Zwontizer keeps his head down and remains silent. Confidential information.
Zwonitzer broke cover on Friday afternoon, as seen in these exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail.com.
He was pictured looking slim and casual in a navy jacket and pants as he left his New York apartment to run some errands.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Mr. Zwontizer was polite but firm, saying only that he “couldn’t talk” when asked about the Justice Department investigation in which he is involved.
With his glasses, wispy beard, graying hair and professorial demeanor, Mr. Zwonitzer is an unlikely candidate to be embroiled in a classified documents scandal.
But Biden has a very close relationship with the 81-year-old president and said he would trust him with his life.
In a sense, he does just that twice by having Zvonitzer ghostwrite his memoirs. The first time was “Promises to Keep” in 2007, and the second time was 10 years later with “A Promise to My Father.”
It was during this second project that Mr. Biden was “sloppy in his handling of classified materials,” according to special counsel Robert Hur’s report released Thursday.
Xu said the president kept notes he kept from his time as vice president and read them to Zvonitzer, sometimes for more than an hour at a time.
The memo contained classified material that Zvonitzer did not keep confidential.
At one point, the memos cited details from a Situation Room meeting at the White House in 2015, the report said.
The report goes on to state that on February 16, 2017, after he ceased to be vice president, Mr. I read it to Zwonitzer,” he added.
More importantly, when Mr. Biden suggested the possibility of hiring Mr. Zwonitzer as a historian in the Vice President’s Office, he was informed that the writer did not have permission to do so. It means that it was.
But a 2017 recording of a conversation between Mr. Biden and Mr. Zwonitzer discovered by federal investigators includes Mr. Biden saying, “I found all the classified stuff downstairs,” at the house he was renting in Virginia at the time. It is said that the
Similarly, investigators found a box of materials labeled “Mark Z.”
The confession found eerie echoes of events in December 2022, when FBI agents discovered classified Afghan documents inside a cardboard box in Biden’s garage in Delaware.
Disconcertingly, Mr. Zwonitzer deleted a 2017 audio recording in which Mr. Biden shared classified information.
Biden flatly denied doing any such thing at a press conference Thursday.
However, a report released the same day found that authorities were able to recover most of Zvonitzer’s deleted recordings using forensic tools.
However, investigators were ultimately satisfied with what the author described as “plausible and innocent reasons” for removing the material.
Zwonitzer is a respected if not prolific author and documentary maker, with numerous titles to his name and two PBS awards for Excellence in Nonfiction and Excellence in Writing for his work. It has been nominated for two Emmy Awards.
He is the author of two nonfiction biographies, “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone,” co-authored with Charles Hirshberg.
Biography of a Tradition American folk music group The Carter Family was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award.
His book, The Statesman and The Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain and The Rise of American Imperialism, was published in April 2016.
Zvonitzer began his career with a brief stint as a fact-checker for Esquire magazine, but ironically, it was through journalist Richard Ben Kramer’s book What It Takes: The Way to the White House” was my job as a researcher. Within touching distance of the Oval Office.
Interviewed by Nieman News about his experience working with Kramer, Zwonitzer recalled that he was a “23-year-old kid researcher” who knew nothing when Kramer “tipped something off.” [him] took him out of his life and moved him to Washington to work for him.
It was the fall of 1986, and Zvonitzer had acquired a house with a friend, Geraldine Hershey, who had just taken a job at the Washington Post.
Working there was life-changing for Zvonitzer. Personally, he is married to Hershey and has a son and a daughter.
Professionally, he will be a key figure in providing thorough commentary on the 1988 Republican and Democratic presidential primaries for which Biden became well known.
Mr. Biden reportedly first contacted Mr. Zwontizer in 2006 when he was considering writing his memoir.
In an interview about Zwonitzer, who was a registered Democrat until 2012 but now lists his party affiliation as “other,” Biden described the man as “a great, great person” and said he has “great assets.” , which he said helped him. he organizes
Perhaps, in hindsight, both men might have wished that it had included a clearer separation of classified and unclassified materials within the organization.