WASHINGTON– A federal appeals court rejected a request by Joe Biden to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter before he was elected president.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stayed its decision until Aug. 3 to give Biden more time to consider another appeal.

The panel’s 2-1 ruling Monday night found that there is a “substantial” public interest in revealing material that Biden wants to keep secret. Redacting the recordings would help protect Biden’s privacy, the majority noted.

“We conclude that any remaining incursion on personal privacy arising from the disclosure of the now redacted materials is unlikely to outweigh the public interest in disclosure,” the court wrote.

Mark Zwonitzer, who worked with Biden on both of his memoirs, interviewed the Democrat at his home in 2016 and 2017. Biden’s lawyers say the conversations were candid, personal and intended to remain private.

The recordings were obtained by special prosecutor Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator from Delaware and as vice president. Republicans in Congress demanded the material after Hur refused to press charges against the then-president.

Biden sued and sought a court order to prevent the Justice Department of President Donald Trump, a Republican, from turning over the recordings to Congress and the conservative Heritage Foundation. The department previously argued that the recordings were exempt from disclosure under public records law.

Biden appealed after U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled in June that the public interest in the material outweighed any privacy rights Biden had. Friedrich was nominated by Trump.

The appeal was heard by DC Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Gregory Katsas and Florence Pan.

Pan, nominated by Biden, disagreed with the majority opinion.

Srinivasan was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat who chose Biden as his vice president. Katas was nominated by Trump.