Watchdog group says Biden White House used three different autopen signatures

Biden administration proclamations, executive orders, pardons and commutations were signed mechanically with at least three versions of President Biden’s signature during his four years in office, an analysis has found.

After analyzing thousands of signatures, the Washington-based Oversight Project determined that the White House used the autopen to sign thousands of documents while Mr. Biden was president. The device was often used even when Mr. Biden was in the White House and could have signed himself.

Use of the pen “exploded” during the second half of 2022, when Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline became increasingly apparent, investigators for the Oversight Project found.

Last week, lawyers at the government watchdog group said they discovered a third unique mechanical signature used to sign hundreds of presidential proclamations beginning days after Mr. Biden took office in January 2021.

“The uniformity of these signatures on these proclamations led us to conclude with high confidence that there is a third autopen signature,” Kyle Brosnan, the Oversight Project’s vice president of legal matters, told The Washington Times.

The Oversight Project is an independent, nonprofit organization previously affiliated with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

It’s unclear why at least three mechanical signatures were used in the Biden White House or whether the presidential autopen typically uses multiple signatures.

The National Archives, which has custody of Mr. Biden’s signed documents, did not immediately respond.

A source familiar with the matter told The Times that President Trump’s autopen uses a single version of his signature and is limited to signing correspondence with the public.

The Biden administration’s documents signed with the autopen are the focus of a Justice Department investigation, ordered by Mr. Trump, into whether Mr. Biden’s close aides were mechanically signing executive orders, pardons and other crucial documents without Mr. Biden’s full knowledge and understanding.

Mr. Trump suggested that some of the documents, including pardons, may not be valid.

“The Department of Justice, under Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, is acting independently to determine whether President Biden was making decisions related to pardons or commutations or if unelected staffers took advantage of him through the use of an autopen,” a senior administration official said.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden issued a statement forcefully denying he was unaware of executive orders, pardons and other actions in the White House.

“I made the decisions during my presidency,” Mr. Biden said.

Close aides anonymously disclosed in tell-all books and news articles that Mr. Biden, who left office at age 82, was largely disengaged in the latter part of his presidency.

Oversight Project investigators found that Mr. Biden’s autopen was working in overdrive.

Investigators said Mr. Biden appears to have physically signed every executive order and pardon during the first 17 months of his presidency.

The autopen entered the scene for executive orders and pardons on June 13, 2022, when it was used to sign the document commuting the sentence of Brittany Krambeck, who was serving the end of an 18-year drug conviction on home confinement.

About a month later, the autopen was used for the first time to sign one of Mr. Biden’s executive orders.

Oversight Project investigators determined that the White House’s use of the autopen for pardons and executive orders increased dramatically and appeared to coincide with Mr. Biden’s apparent cognitive and physical decline.

Beginning July 15, 2022, the Biden autopen was used to sign every executive order for the rest of the year, Oversight Project investigators determined by analyzing the signatures on the documents.

Aides seemed to ratchet up the use of the device as Mr. Biden’s age-related difficulties became more pronounced.

Mr. Biden fell while cycling near his beach house in Delaware on June 18, 2022. A few weeks later, he stumbled through a White House speech on abortion, mistakenly reading the teleprompter instructions, “end of quote — repeat the line,” and fumbling a sentence on women and political power.

Addressing a White House conference on health and nutrition in September 2022, he called out the name of a House lawmaker to stand up and be recognized. The lawmaker, Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana, had died weeks earlier in a car crash.

In October, Mr. Biden wished Vice President Kamala Harris a happy birthday and called her “a great president.” That same month, he blamed high prices on “a war in Iraq” and said his son Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer, had died there.

The autopen use became routine as Mr. Biden’s gaffes and stumbles continued.

Oversight Project investigators determined that 16 of the 24 executive orders issued by the White House in 2023 were signed with the autopen. In 2024, three-quarters of his executive orders, 14 out of 19, were signed mechanically.

Mr. Biden was president for 20 days this year. He issued 14 executive orders, all signed with the autopen.

Investigators noted a disturbing pattern. When most executive orders were signed mechanically, Mr. Biden was in Washington and could have signed them personally.

The autopen was initially intended to sign documents when the president was traveling and unable to provide a physical signature.

It’s unclear why Mr. Biden relied so heavily on the autopen.

The new book “Original Sin,” by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, quotes anonymous aides who say Mr. Biden could provide only “four to six good hours a day,” and they tried not to overwork him.

On Dec. 1, Mr. Biden pardoned his son with his own signature. Hunter Biden was convicted of three felonies connected to his illegal purchase of a firearm and was facing a likely federal tax fraud conviction.

Most of Mr. Biden’s final pardons and commutations were signed with the autopen, including those aimed at shielding his family members, former COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the Democratic-run House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

The autopen signed commutations for nearly every federal inmate on death row, including those convicted of murdering children and law enforcement officers.

A White House spokesperson said Mr. Trump wants to determine whether Mr. Biden’s aides acted in his place on important decisions.

“The American people deserve to know the extent to which unelected staffers and an autopen acted as a proxy president due to the incompetence and infirmity of the previous president,” deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said. “President Trump was elected to restore the integrity and transparency of the office, and answering the question of who was actually running this country for four years is well within the president’s rights.”