(Bloomberg) — A federal judge in Washington denied former President Joe Biden’s request to block the Justice Department from turning over tapes and transcripts of interviews he privately recorded almost a decade ago to a conservative advocacy group, but will temporarily bar the release while he appeals.

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The Justice Department is poised to produce the materials to the Heritage Foundation. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich on Friday rejected Biden’s request for an indefinite order halting the disclosure while he presses his claims to keep the materials out of the public eye.

Biden’s lawyers immediately alerted the judge that they intend to challenge her decision before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Friedrich agreed to pause her order for three weeks. An attorney for the former president didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Friedrich wrote that Biden failed to prove at this stage that the Justice Department’s decision to release the materials was an abuse of officials’ discretion in weighing his privacy against the public’s interest in the contents. Certain portions would be redacted, the judge said, such as information about Biden’s family and health issues.

Spokespeople for the foundation and DOJ didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on a public holiday Friday.

Biden has been opposing efforts by the Trump administration to release the recordings, which he made in 2016 and 2017 with a memoir-writing partner. The Heritage Foundation and congressional Republicans have been trying to get the recordings and unredacted interview transcripts following a 2024 report that cited them as proof of Biden’s “diminished” mental state.

Separate from the case before Friedrich, Biden filed a lawsuit in May seeking to block the Justice Department from giving the materials to the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee.

The judge presiding over the committee’s case hasn’t ruled yet on Biden’s request to immediately stop that disclosure.

The Heritage Foundation sued to compel the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act. The government released redacted pages of transcripts but otherwise opposed Heritage’s case before Trump returned to the White House.

The recordings and transcripts are expected to become public if Biden loses either case.