But in the high-profile federal inquiries into President Biden and former President Donald Trump over their handling of classified documents, the writers who were supposed to evade the spotlight found themselves in the public glare.
In 2017, Biden read to his own ghostwriter from notebooks he had in his home, which contained classified materials.
Trump was ultimately charged with federal crimes, while Biden was not.
The documents Trump shared were intended to rebut an account about his last days in office — and they were shared not with his own ghostwriter, but someone else’s.
More broadly, they are about the impulse of powerful figures to burnish their legacies, and to tell their stories on their own terms.
Persons:
Ghostwriters, Biden, Donald Trump, —, — Trump, Mark, Trump, “
Locations:
Iran, Mark Meadows, —