Trump: Autopen Use In Biden Administration ‘Under Serious Investigation’
President Donald J. Trump announced that federal investigators are probing the Biden administration’s use of the autopen, a mechanical signature device that may have been used to authorize thousands of pardons and commutations without proper presidential review.
Speaking at the White House during a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei, Trump responded to a reporter’s question about Venezuela and narco-terrorism by pivoting to what he called one of the “most disturbing abuses of executive power” in modern history.
“Venezuela has done a couple of things very badly,” Trump said. “Number one, we get drugs and all of that. But we get something, in a way, worse … they send their criminals into the United States … they empty their prisons and mental institutions into the United States.”
The president blamed the crisis on his predecessor’s weakness.
“Because we had a president who’s low IQ, he didn’t realize what was going on,” Trump said, referring to Joe Biden. “And the people that are high IQ that surround him, but they happen to be lunatics — radical left, highly intelligent, radical left lunatics — they ran the show.”
Trump then connected the issue to the autopen scandal, alleging that powerful operatives effectively governed in Biden’s place.
“You heard about the Autopen — the person that really operated the Autopen. But it was really the people that told the person that operated the Autopen what to do. Those are the people that really were president,” Trump said. “And, by the way, that Autopen thing is under serious investigation.”
He added with characteristic flair:
“The people that are involved in that Autopen scam — because he barely signed anything. The only thing we can find for sure is that he signed Hunter’s Biden. His pardon. Hunter’s Biden. I like that. That’s a good combination.”
Trump’s comments come as internal White House emails obtained by reporters reveal growing concern among Biden aides and Justice Department officials about the legitimacy of sweeping clemency grants issued in the administration’s final days.
The documents show that on January 11, 2025, Biden orally approved a plan to commute sentences for inmates convicted on crack cocaine charges. Yet, three separate warrant documents listing roughly 2,500 recipients were not autopen-signed until January 17, just three days before Biden left office.
In one exchange, then–White House Staff Secretary Stef Feldman pressed colleagues for written confirmation that Biden had personally approved the clemency list:
“I’m going to need email … confirming P[resident] signs off on the specific documents when they are ready,” Feldman wrote late on January 16.
Deputy White House Counsel Tyeesha Dixon forwarded the concern to her superior, Michael Posada, noting, “He doesn’t review the warrants.” Posada replied that the team would “just need something … making clear that the documents accurately reflect his decision.”
The mass clemency was officially announced at 4:59 a.m. on January 17. However, it remains unclear whether Biden personally reviewed or even saw the final warrant documents before the autopen signatures were affixed.
Biden later admitted to the New York Times in July that he had relied on the autopen, saying it was necessary “because there were a lot of them.”
While legal experts acknowledge that autopen signatures carry lawful authority, the warrants must still reflect the president’s genuine intent — a point now central to the investigation President Trump confirmed is underway.
The probe is expected to examine whether any officials improperly exercised presidential powers or falsified authorization records, a potential violation of federal law.
With President Trump’s Justice Department now pursuing the matter, the so-called “Autopen Affair” could become a defining test of accountability for the prior administration — and a stark warning about how power was wielded behind closed doors.