Zients Signed Off, Biden Checked Out: Autopen Scandal Unravels as Trump Calls It a “Historic Fraud”
In a final act that now faces growing scrutiny, former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff reportedly gave the green light for a flurry of high-profile pardons to be executed using an autopen, bypassing Biden’s own direct signature — and possibly his awareness altogether.
During Biden’s last hours in office, dozens of controversial preemptive pardons were issued, including protections granted to figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley — two of the most polarizing officials in the previous administration. The move is widely viewed by critics as a desperate attempt to shield allies from accountability under President Donald Trump’s administration.
President Trump, who has called attention to Biden’s use of the autopen for months, now says the entire scheme casts doubt on the legitimacy of the clemency orders. “I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you,” President Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
A New York Times report reveals that on the night of January 19, Biden met with advisors until nearly 10 p.m. to discuss the pardons. Yet, it was not Biden himself who approved the final decisions, but rather his Chief of Staff Jeff Zients — who, in an email sent at 10:31 p.m., reportedly stated: “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”
According to internal communications reviewed by the Times, Zients, along with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, was responsible for executing the final list. Notably, the Times report concedes that Biden did not personally approve the individual names being pardoned. Instead, he allegedly endorsed vague criteria and left it to others to decide who qualified.
“The same president who lied through his teeth to the American people for four years about everything from his health to the state of the economy should not be trusted again,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields in a statement to Fox News. “The Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics… The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country sooner or later.”
The scale of the pardon spree is staggering. According to Pew Research Center data, Biden issued 4,245 acts of clemency, with a staggering 96% of them occurring between October 2024 and January 2025 — during a time when concerns about his mental acuity were at their peak.
President Trump, sounding the alarm in March, publicly accused Biden of abusing the autopen to sign off on major legal and policy decisions without direct involvement. By June, he issued a memo instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether the use of the autopen stemmed from Biden’s deteriorating cognitive abilities.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that Biden’s aides abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.”
While Biden’s defenders claim the autopen was used appropriately, the question remains: Who was really in charge during those final days? And more importantly — who was making the decisions that continue to affect the nation today?
One White House official emphasized that President Trump personally signs every legally binding document — a stark contrast to the alleged use of mechanical signatures under Biden. Trump has admitted to using the autopen only for routine, ceremonial letters — never for executive actions.