Biden’s final pardons probed for autopen abuse by Justice Department

The Justice Department is investigating the legitimacy of thousands of pardons President Biden issued during his final days in office, which were likely signed with an autopen.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Justice Department’s new pardon attorney, Ed Martin, is looking into the electronic signatures on the former president’s last-minute pardons “because the American people deserve answers.”

In an email to Justice Department employees, Mr. Martin said the investigation would determine whether Mr. Biden, who left office at age 82, was “competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of an autopen or other means.”

The presidential autopen, a device used to electronically sign documents on behalf of the president, is secured in the West Wing, typically inside the office of the staff secretary.

Under typical administrations, the autopen is tightly controlled and users of the pen are logged meticulously. The logs are sent to the National Archives when a president leaves office.

Mr. Martin is likely to pursue those logs now that Mr. Biden’s mental acuity and his administration’s use of the autopen are under new scrutiny, those familiar with the plan said.

Several recent books and news reports on the Biden administration quote top Biden aides admitting they covered up for his cognitive decline and made decisions on his behalf.

The exact number of pardons, executive orders and other memoranda signed by autopen during the Biden administration is unknown, but some analysts say it numbers in the thousands and that Mr. Biden may not have been aware of its heavy use.

“I think it’s criminal in nature. It certainly indicates a lot of potential crimes,” said Mike Howell, whose independent government corruption watchdog group, Oversight Project, found extensive use of the autopen by Biden officials.

President Trump has used social media to mock the Biden administration as “The AUTOPEN.”

The Biden administration used the auto signature device to sign pardons, executive orders and, in at least one case, legislation, according to the Oversight Project, which found an increased use of the tool “as Mr. Biden’s mental and physical decline accelerated.”

The autopen was used on days that Mr. Biden was in the Oval Office and could have provided his real signature, the Oversight Project reported.

During his final days in office, it was likely used to grant pardons and commutations to thousands of people, among them dozens of convicted murderers.

Because Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline was evident to staff, Mr. Howell said, they could be investigated for forgery, impersonating a federal official and even bribery in the case of the thousands of pardons signed with the autopen.

Mr. Biden’s aides had an obligation to ensure the president could carry out his duties, Mr. Howell said. Instead, they appeared to have covered up his decline and operated the office on his behalf.

The Oversight Project examined 51 clemency warrants bearing Mr. Biden’s signature. The warrants granted clemency to 4,245 people, a record for any U.S. president.

The Oversight Project found that more than half the warrants issued during Mr. Biden’s administration were signed by one of two autopen signatures.

The autopen is operated using a card inserted into a machine to program the device to produce a particular signature.

Mr. Howell said the validity of Mr. Biden’s pardons and commutations could be questioned, given the former president’s now-documented decline.

Mr. Biden, once a tough-on-crime senator, commuted the sentences of dozens of murderers on death row to life in prison. He granted clemency to other criminals, among them men who killed children and law enforcement officers.

During his final moments as president, Mr. Biden issued a flurry of preemptive pardons for his younger brother James Biden and other family members, as well as former chief medical adviser to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and others who, according to a statement, he feared Mr. Trump would target.

The pardons were issued as Mr. Biden entered the Capitol to attend Mr. Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, marking the last public acts of his presidency.

Mr. Biden said in a statement that the pardons were justified in the face of political retribution by the Trump administration, particularly the sweeping preemptive pardons of his family.

Congressional Republicans were prepared to seek a Justice Department investigation into whether James Biden lied in congressional testimony about his family’s business dealings.

Mr. Biden also pardoned retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and staunch Trump critic. He also pardoned members of the Democratic-led House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Mr. Trump called Mr. Biden’s use of an autopen “a big deal” and said that “whoever was operating the autopen” was acting as president.

Mr. Trump said he signs everything, except for White House responses to the thousands of letters the president receives from the public.

“The president is making a good point when he discusses the usage of the autopen,” Ms. Leavitt said. “Who was running the country for the past four years?”

On Monday, Mr. Trump blamed “the autopen” for Iran’s progress toward creating a nuclear weapon during the Biden administration.

“The AUTOPEN should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.’ Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social media site.

Mr. Martin announced the autopen investigation in an email to Justice Department staff, Reuters first reported. The Washington Times confirmed the email.

Mr. Martin said he would examine Mr. Biden’s pardoning of his family members and the commutations issued to the death row inmates.

Legal experts have warned that Mr. Martin won’t get far with the investigation because Mr. Biden has presidential immunity and is unlikely to answer questions about the autopen signatures.

However, Mr. Howell said staffers can be held responsible based on their now-public admissions in news reports and books.

A book authored by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson reported that a handful of top aides ran the Biden administration as the president’s cognitive abilities decreased rapidly during the final year or two of his term.

Most of the Biden aides quoted in the book did so anonymously.

Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline is under investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The panel last month sent letters demanding that Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former White House physician, and four former senior White House aides appear for transcribed interviews after reports detailed the severity of Mr. Biden’s cognitive struggles and his sudden, recent diagnosis of stage four prostate cancer. The committee plans to issue subpoenas if the group does not appear voluntarily, said committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican.

“The Trump DOJ is right to open a probe into the potential unauthorized use of an autopen at the Biden White House for sweeping pardons and other executive actions,” Mr. Comer told The Times. “Americans demand transparency and accountability about who was calling the shots at the White House.”

In a May appearance on the daytime talk show “The View,” Mr. Biden denied the bombshell claims in the book by Mr. Tapper and Mr. Thompson that he was too cognitively impaired to run the country.

“They are wrong. There is nothing to sustain that,” Mr. Biden said.

• Kerry Picket contributed to this report.