The alleged utilization of the autopen by Biden has sparked controversy for several months, with former President Donald Trump asserting that numerous pardons signed by Biden were void and invalid, claiming that the former president was unaware of the documents he was endorsing with the automated device.
On his last day in office, Biden issued a series of preemptive pardons to various officials, including former Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, in a bid to shield them from potential retaliation by Trump.
An article aimed at defending the autopen controversy disclosed that, although Biden allegedly made the decision during a meeting, his chief of staff, Jeff Zients, provided the final approval for the use of the autopen, at least concerning Fauci and Milley, as reported by the New York Times.
On January 19, Biden’s last day as president, he convened with his advisors until nearly 10 p.m. to deliberate on various preemptive pardons, according to the Times. Emails obtained by the Times indicate that at 10:03 p.m., an aide presented a summary draft of the official decisions made during the meeting to Zients’ assistant.
At 10:28 p.m., the assistant forwarded the email to Zients and other participants of the meeting, seeking approval from Zients and White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, as per the Times. The source noted that Zients responded to all the emails just three minutes later.
“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,” Zients stated in the email, according to the Times.
The report from The New York Times further disclosed that President Biden did not personally authorize each individual name included in the extensive, categorical pardons.
“Instead, following thorough discussions regarding various potential criteria, he approved the standards he wished to be applied to identify which convicts would be eligible for a sentence reduction,” the Times stated.
When questioned about the Times’ findings, Trump informed reporters at the White House on Monday that Biden’s purported use of the autopen could represent possibly “one of the largest scandals we have encountered in the last 50 to 100 years. I assure you he was unaware of what he was signing, I assure you.”
The White House indicated that the report highlighted Biden’s lack of trustworthiness and accused the Biden administration of participating in a cover-up.
“The same president who deceived the American public for four years regarding everything from his health to the economic situation should not be trusted again,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields stated in an email to Fox News. “The Biden administration executed the most outrageous cover-up scheme in American political history… The truth will eventually surface regarding who was truly in charge of the country, just as the reality about Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical health is coming to light.”
As per the Pew Research Center, Biden granted 4,245 acts of mercy during his presidency, with 96% of these being issued between October 2024 and January.
Trump initially accused Biden of utilizing an autopen to sign essential clemency documents in March. He has persistently brought up the issue, and in June, he composed a memo directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to commence an investigation into Biden’s use of an autopen, as well as to ascertain whether this usage was a result of a decline in Biden’s mental faculties.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly evident that Biden’s aides exploited the authority of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to obscure Biden’s cognitive deterioration and assert Article II powers,”
This conspiracy represents one of the most alarming and perilous scandals in the history of the United States. The American populace was deliberately kept unaware of who held the executive authority, even as Biden’s signature was applied to thousands of documents to implement drastic policy changes.
A White House representative stated that Trump utilizes his handwritten signature for every legally effective or binding document.
Trump has acknowledged in the past that he employs an autopen for correspondence.
