The Oversight Project is continuing its investigation into President Joseph R. Biden’s use of an autopen to sign certain critical Presidential documents. Part I of our investigation examined the Biden White House’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and commutations. Part II of our investigation examined the Biden White House’s use of an autopen to sign Executive Orders. We encourage you to read both documents.
In Part II, we found that the Biden White House issued a substantial number of Executive Orders via autopen while President Biden was physically located in Washington, D.C. We also found that, on at least 8 occasions, President Biden hand-signed bills, but autopenned Executive Orders on the same day. We found this trend to be particularly concerning because there is no publicly available justification for why the autopen would be used on such an important document when President Biden was available in Washington D.C. to affix his wet signature.
Accordingly, we conducted a similar analysis to determine whether President Biden issued pardons or prison commutations with an autopen while he was physically present in Washington D.C. Recall, President Biden issued 51 clemency warrants while he was President. Over half—32 in total—were “signed” with an autopen. We pulled the White House Press Pool summary of President Biden’s schedule for the days he issued acts of clemency via an autopen. The results are alarming.
Every single autopenned commutation—including ones that removed the death sentences of nearly every inmate on federal death row, freed Iranian spies, and commuted the sentences for thousands of additional federal inmates—was issued while President Biden was physically present in Washington, D.C. Pardons fare little better. Two-thirds of autopenned pardons—including those issued to the members of the January 6 Committee, President Biden’s family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, Iranian spies, and others—occurred when President Biden was physically located in Washington, D.C. In fact, the only autopenned pardons that were issued when President Biden was not in Washington were the six pardons issued while President Biden was golfing with his family on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Take a look at our breakdown of where President Biden was when he issued autopenned pardons and commutations by year.
Given President Biden’s clear cognitive decline, the frequent use of the autopen—often while he was in Washington, D.C.—raises additional questions for investigators. These pardons and commutations should be among the first ones investigated. Stay tuned for additional information on President Biden’s autopen scandal and be sure to follow us on X at @ItsYourGov.