Biden Autopen Scandal Deepens: President Never Signed Any of His Supposed Pardons
The autopen scandal during the mentally incapacitated presidency of Joe Biden is getting worse.
Last week, The Oversight Project revealed that Biden didn’t actually sign any of the pardons, clemencies, and other actions his administration doled out to hundreds of criminals.
And now, even the New York Times is in doubt that Joe actually knew about any of the pardons he supposedly wrote.
The paper notes that it appears from the paper trail that Biden was told who to pardon by his staff and he didn’t really have any role in the pardons at all. And all these. pardons were signed by the autopen wielded by the White House staff.
“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” The New York Times wrote.
The full picture of what Mr. Biden did on pardon and clemency decisions, and how much he directed those decisions and the actions of his staff, including the use of the autopen, may come down to tens of thousands of Biden White House emails that the National Archives has turned over as part of the investigation by the Trump White House and the Justice Department. Those emails contain keywords like “clemency,” “pardon” and “commutation” from November 2024 through Jan. 20, 2025, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
The Times has reviewed several dozen of those emails, which discussed each of the major grants of clemency that were recorded by an autopen near the end of Mr. Biden’s term. But The Times has not seen the full extent of the emails, so it is impossible to capture the totality of information they contain or what else they might show about Mr. Biden’s involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.
But those that were reviewed by The Times show that that the Biden White House had a process to establish that Mr. Biden had orally made decisions in meetings before the staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman, who managed use of the autopen, would have clemency records put through the signing device.
Indeed, this control by the staffers and their use of the autopen to sign the papers may make their issuance unconstitutional.
There is, in fact, no legal way for the president to delegate his clemency authority. The Constitution maintains that the president has this power but does not say he can just hand it off to other people. Therefore, all his pardons and other acts may be completely invalid.
Last week, The Oversight Project revealed that Biden didn’t actually sign any of the pardons, clemencies, and other actions his administration doled out to hundreds of criminals.
And now, even the New York Times is in doubt that Joe actually knew about any of the pardons he supposedly wrote.
The paper notes that it appears from the paper trail that Biden was told who to pardon by his staff and he didn’t really have any role in the pardons at all. And all these. pardons were signed by the autopen wielded by the White House staff.
“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” The New York Times wrote.
The full picture of what Mr. Biden did on pardon and clemency decisions, and how much he directed those decisions and the actions of his staff, including the use of the autopen, may come down to tens of thousands of Biden White House emails that the National Archives has turned over as part of the investigation by the Trump White House and the Justice Department. Those emails contain keywords like “clemency,” “pardon” and “commutation” from November 2024 through Jan. 20, 2025, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
The Times has reviewed several dozen of those emails, which discussed each of the major grants of clemency that were recorded by an autopen near the end of Mr. Biden’s term. But The Times has not seen the full extent of the emails, so it is impossible to capture the totality of information they contain or what else they might show about Mr. Biden’s involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.
But those that were reviewed by The Times show that that the Biden White House had a process to establish that Mr. Biden had orally made decisions in meetings before the staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman, who managed use of the autopen, would have clemency records put through the signing device.
Indeed, this control by the staffers and their use of the autopen to sign the papers may make their issuance unconstitutional.
There is, in fact, no legal way for the president to delegate his clemency authority. The Constitution maintains that the president has this power but does not say he can just hand it off to other people. Therefore, all his pardons and other acts may be completely invalid.
70-79, M
