GOP Asks DOJ to Probe Biden Autopen Use to ‘Void’ Pardons, Other Actions
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding the Justice Department launch a full investigation into who authorized the widespread use of an autopen during former President Joe Biden’s scandal-ridden administration — a move that could call into question the legitimacy of dozens of presidential actions.
In a 100-page investigative report released Tuesday, the Republican-led committee alleged that Biden’s closest advisers concealed his deteriorating mental state and instead relied on a mechanical signature device to approve executive orders, pardons, and other official decisions — without Biden’s direct input or awareness.
“Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides — at the direction of the inner circle — hid the truth about the former president’s condition and fitness for office,” the report stated, according to Fox News.
The committee pointed to what it called a deeply flawed and inconsistent documentation process surrounding Biden-era presidential pardons — raising doubts about whether Biden personally reviewed, understood, or approved the decisions attributed to him.
“In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void,” the report argued.
Comer is now urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to reexamine every executive action Biden took, from his first day in office to his final. The report specifically emphasizes controversial pardons — including those involving individuals with close personal or political ties to the Biden family.
The committee’s investigation also scrutinized Hunter Biden’s reported role in pardon discussions. Former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients testified that Hunter was present for conversations related to potential “preemptive pardons” for members of the Biden family.
Comer told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the findings suggest the entire clemency process under Biden was structurally compromised.
“Every person who we deposed had a different story on what the proper process was that they followed in using the autopen to sign a legal document,” Comer said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“Their stories were inconsistent and then, when you throw in the emails from the Garland Department of Justice expressing concern to these very staffers about the excessive use of the autopen and asking point-blank questions, what was their process, then the entire story is changed. So the inconsistencies abound,” he added.
Over the course of three months, the Oversight Committee conducted 47 hours of testimony with 14 witnesses, including longtime Biden aides. Comer said the testimony revealed a systematic effort to shield Biden’s absence from key decisions.
“One thing that is consistent is the fact that no one saw Joe Biden, no one who authorized the autopen or actually physically manually pressed the power button on autopen ever heard directly from Joe Biden, and, furthermore, there are no notes, there’s no chain of custody that would show that Joe Biden was involved in any meetings where they discussed the pardon process,” Comer said.
“This is appalling, and everyone in America saw during the debate and during the last few months of the Biden administration, this was a president in decline. The staffers confirmed that they would go weeks, months and even years without communicating with Joe Biden,” he continued.
He concluded bluntly: “This is a massive cover-up, and what we determined was every pardon should be declared null and void.”
A 2005 Justice Department opinion issued during the George W. Bush administration acknowledged that the use of an autopen is legally permissible, provided the president personally authorizes its use. Republicans argue the key issue is whether Biden was cognitively capable of granting such authorization at all.
With President Donald J. Trump now serving his second term, the controversy is fueling renewed scrutiny of the previous administration’s transparency, decision-making, and constitutional legitimacy.