A monthslong House investigation has concluded that President Biden “was losing command of himself” while in office and was not personally involved in many of the pardons, commutations and other executive actions signed by an autopen.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked the Justice Department to “address the legal consequences” of House investigators’ conclusion, which “deems void” executive actions and clemency warrants signed by the autopen during the Biden administration that do not include documentation proving the president made the decision.
“The Committee requests that you investigate all executive actions taken during the Biden Administration to ascertain whether they were duly authorized by the President of the United States,” Chairman James Comer wrote.
The letter was addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi after the release Tuesday of a 91-page report authored by the Republican-led committee on Mr. Biden’s use of the autopen, his apparent cognitive decline while president, and the “delusion and deception” among White House aides who Republican lawmakers say covered it up.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee interviewed more than a dozen members of the Biden White House inner circle to seek their recollection of the former president’s mental acuity while in office and their roles in the frequent use of the autopen to sign critical documents on his behalf.
“Our report reveals how key aides colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished,” said Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican.
Mr. Biden issued more pardons and commutations than any other president in history, and most were signed with a mechanical signature even though he was physically present in the White House. His chief of staff, Jeff Zients, oversaw the autopen signatures.
The autopen signed commutations for thousands of federal prisoners, many of them violent offenders, and was used to commute the sentences of nearly every federal inmate on death row, among them people convicted of murder in the deaths of children and law enforcement officers. The autopen was also used to pardon members of Mr. Biden’s family and top political allies who he feared would be prosecuted under the Trump administration.
Mr. Biden issued clemency to more than 4,200 people.
Mr. Trump, who has pardoned about 1,700 people over both terms, said Mr. Biden’s pardons were “void” because he did not sign them personally. No steps have been taken to reverse those pardons. Mr. Trump ordered the Justice Department to examine the matter, and that investigation continues.
The Justice Department also found numerous instances with no clear evidence or documentation that Mr. Biden participated in the autopen sign-off of executive actions. Justice Department investigators uncovered a memo in which White House aides said they obtained sign-offs on clemency decisions from Vice President Kamala Harris, even though only the president has constitutional pardoning authority.
When asked about the House investigators’ memo, Mr. Zients denied that Ms. Harris played any role in deciding clemency. “No one would allow for that to happen,” he told lawmakers, according to a transcribed interview.
In the final days of Mr. Biden’s presidency, clemency was granted to thousands of felons, many who had committed violent crimes and fell outside the group of nonviolent drug offenders whose sentences Mr. Biden announced he was commuting.
The Justice Department warned during Mr. Biden’s final days in office that many of the people on his clemency list were “highly problematic” because they had committed murders and other crimes far outside the scope of the president’s intentions. House investigators found that the clemency actions “lacked a decision memo” proving Mr. Biden was involved in the sign-off, the House report found.
Several former Biden aides refused to testify and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when the House committee interviewed them in closed-door sessions.
Among them was White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who declined to say whether he was told to lie about Mr. Biden’s health or whether he thought Mr. Biden was fit to be president. Dr. O’Connor, Mr. Biden’s longtime physician, never noted any cognitive decline while serving as the presidential doctor. He said he never gave Mr. Biden a cognitive test despite growing public and private concerns about the president’s mental fitness.
On Tuesday, Mr. Comer wrote to the District of Columbia Board of Medicine and called on its members to investigate Dr. O’Connor and consider sanctioning his medical license.
Mr. Comer asked the Justice Department to investigate Mr. O’Connor and top Biden aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini, who, like Dr. O’Connor, refused to answer the committee’s questions. Mr. Comey said they were “deeply involved in the cover-up” of Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline.
“We request that you undertake an investigation to determine if any action taken by these three individuals during the course of their official duties in the Biden White House constitutes criminal activity,” Mr. Comer wrote.
Democrats said the House investigation uncovered no wrongdoing. Mr. Biden denied that staff were using the autopen to sign documents without his knowledge.
Mr. Biden, 82, said he voiced permission for all the clemency warrants, though not each case individually. He said congressional Republicans and Mr. Trump were “liars” for claiming he was disengaged with his presidential duties.
“I made every decision,” Mr. Biden told The New York Times in a phone interview this summer. Mr. Biden said the autopen was used to sign the clemency warrants because there were so many. “We’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Most of the commutations were included in three autopen-signed warrants.
“The investigation’s findings make clear that, as President Biden was losing command of himself throughout his time in office, his executive actions — especially pardons, of which there are many — cannot all be deemed his own,” the report said. “The authority to grant pardons is not provided to the president’s inner circle. Nor can it be delegated to particular staff when a president’s competency is in question.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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