“Individuals in the Biden Administration other than the President appear to have used a device called an autopen to affix the President’s signature onto some of the most controversial clemency warrants of his Presidency.”
It has been reported by the Oversight Project that during former President Joe Biden's last term, staffers used a device called an autopen to sign warrants of clemency, and pardons, including for those that served on the January 6 Committee. The organization has questioned the legitimacy of Biden's signatures on the pardons as a result.
According to the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, which is "conducting an on-going review of public documents discharging non-delegable Presidential powers containing former President Joseph R. Biden’s signature," staffers at the White House during Biden's tenure as president signed "clemency warrants" at least 32 times.
In a report posted to their social media, the Oversight Project wrote that "individuals in the Biden Administration other than the President appear to have used a device called an autopen to affix the President’s signature onto some of the most controversial clemency warrants of his Presidency."
An autopen is a machine, commonly used in Congressional and other federal buildings, where elected officials' signature can be written on documents when a staffer has permission to do so.
The Oversight Project questioned the practice, citing Biden’s mental decline as president, "The Biden Administration’s autopen use raises grave constitutional, legal, and pragmatic questions. How widespread was autopen use in the Biden White House? Given President Biden’s mental and physical decline while in Office, to what extent was he aware of the use of the autopen?"
In reaction to the report from the Oversight project on Truth Social, President Donald Trump declared that the pardons the January 6 Select Committee from Biden were void, "The 'Pardons' that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!"
Currently, there is no law that prohibits the use of an autopen by the president or other elected officials. On Monday, Trump told reporters that autopen is used "only for very unimportant papers" while he has been president.
"We may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter because it’s nice. You know, we get thousands and thousands of letters, letters of support for young people, from people that aren’t feeling well, etcetera. But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful," Trump added.
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