Biden Defends Use Of Autopen For Mass Clemency Decisions
Former President Joe Biden defended his choice to utilize an autopen for signing his final pardons, elucidating the administration’s reasoning for using the device in a recently released interview.
The discussion with The New York Times specifically addressed his use of the autopen to carry out the last set of clemency actions at the end of his term. During those concluding weeks, Biden granted pardons and clemency to over 1,500 individuals, which the White House characterized at the time as the largest single-day clemency act by any U.S. president.
In his interview, Biden informed the Times that he “made every decision” independently. “We’re discussing [granting clemency to] a significant number of people,” Biden conveyed to the publication.
However, the Times reported that the then-president “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” according to Biden and his aides.
“Instead, following extensive discussions regarding various potential criteria, [Biden] endorsed the standards he wished to be applied to ascertain which convicts would be eligible for a sentence reduction,” the Times’s article stated.
To avoid the need for repeatedly asking the president to sign updated versions of official documents, his staff utilized an autopen to affix Biden’s signature to the final drafts.
His explanation emerged amidst Republican criticism regarding his significant use of the autopen for a large volume of formal paperwork.
In June, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum to the Justice Department directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the use of the autopen and evaluate whether it indicated a decline in Biden’s mental capabilities.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly evident that former President Biden’s aides misused the authority of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to obscure Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump stated.
This conspiracy represents one of the most perilous and troubling scandals in American history. The American populace was deliberately kept unaware of who held the executive authority, while Biden’s signature was utilized on thousands of documents to implement radical policy changes,” he remarked.
In June, Trump informed reporters that he considered the use of an autopen to be “inappropriate,” despite the fact that previous presidents have used the device, as reported by Fox News.
“Typically, when documents are presented to you, they hold significance,” Trump stated. “Even if you are signing ambassadorships – which I regard as significant, I find it inappropriate.”
“You have an individual who dedicates four years or more of their life to serving as an ambassador. I believe that person truly deserves a genuine signature… not one produced by an autopen,” he further emphasized.
In the meantime, the Justice Department has informed a federal court that it is currently reviewing documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as part of a Freedom of Information Act case initiated by the legal organization Judicial Watch.
On Monday, the Department of Justice and Judicial Watch presented a joint status report concerning the watchdog group’s lawsuit from April regarding a FOIA request submitted in February for records associated with Epstein, as reported by Just the News. Part of Judicial Watch’s request included records “illustrating the identities of clients or associates of Epstein.”
The watchdog group initiated the lawsuit against both the DOJ and FBI after “they failed to sufficiently respond to three distinct FOIA requests.”
In the joint status report released by the legal group on Thursday, it states that, concerning all Epstein-related records, “the FBI has conducted its initial searches and is currently reviewing those search results.”
The report also indicated that for records of communications involving FBI Director Kash Patel regarding the Epstein client list, “the FBI’s search efforts are still ongoing.”