White House Emails Reveal Biden’s Questionable Role in Autopen Pardons

Newly released internal emails from the Biden White House are raising serious questions about whether former President Joe Biden personally authorized thousands of controversial pardons and commutations in the final days of his presidency—or if staffers rushed through decisions with little oversight while relying on an autopen.

According to documents obtained by The New York Post, aides and Justice Department officials privately expressed concern about Biden’s sweeping clemency grants in January 2025. While Biden allegedly gave oral approval on January 11 to commute sentences for certain crack cocaine offenders, the official paperwork—three massive warrant documents covering roughly 2,500 individuals—was not affixed with his autopen signature until the early morning hours of January 17, just three days before he left office.

On the evening of January 16, then–White House Staff Secretary Stef Feldman hesitated to authorize Biden’s autopen signature without written confirmation.
“I’m going to need email … confirming P[resident] signs off on the specific documents when they are ready,” Feldman wrote at 9:16 p.m.

Deputy White House counsel Tyeesha Dixon forwarded that message to Michael Posada, chief of staff in the counsel’s office, adding bluntly:
“Michael, thoughts on how to handle this? He doesn’t review the warrants.”

Posada responded that aides would “just need something … making clear that the documents accurately reflect his decision.” Hours later, at 4:59 a.m. on January 17, the mass clemency order was announced.

Violent Offenders Included

The warrants grouped recipients into three categories: those released in February, others whose sentences were shortened, and a small group of 19 inmates whose prison terms were reduced to 350 months (nearly 30 years). Among them were violent criminals—including Russell McIntosh, convicted of a double murder in North Carolina in 1999.

Though autopen carries legal effect, the Constitution requires that such orders reflect the president’s own intent. The emails show staff scrambling to create a paper trail verifying Biden’s “decisions,” though it remains unclear whether he ever reviewed the final warrants himself.

In a July 2025 interview with the New York Times, Biden admitted he used autopen because “there were a lot of them.”

Pattern of Concern

This wasn’t the first time the Biden White House scrambled to justify autopen use. A month earlier, in December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole. Then-associate counsel Jared English told Dixon via email that written confirmation was required before autopen signatures could be authorized. Dixon even suggested drafting the “approval” statement in the first person for White House Counsel Ed Siskel.

The Justice Department also raised alarms. DOJ official Elysa Wan questioned warrant language granting relief for “offenses described to the Department of Justice,” writing: “We do not know how to interpret” the phrasing. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer warned the wording could render the clemencies ineffective, pressing for “a statement of direction from the President.” There is no evidence such clarification was ever issued before Biden left office.

Biden’s “Working Hours” and GOP Oversight

Reports at the time described Biden as working primarily between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., even as clemency discussions and final approvals were handled overnight. He had also previously used autopen to grant mercy to 1,500 pandemic-era inmates on home confinement.

Congressional Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are now investigating Biden’s use of the autopen and demanding records from the Justice Department. They argue the revelations prove the former president sidestepped direct accountability while pushing through radical last-minute decisions.

A former Biden staffer, however, told The Post: “President Biden made the decisions,” accusing Republicans of applying a double standard when comparing Biden’s actions to broader pardons granted during President Trump’s first term.

President Trump has not reversed the clemency orders but has sharply criticized Biden’s reliance on autopen—a practice that conservatives say symbolizes his disengaged leadership style and lack of transparency.