Former President Donald Trump has frequently referred to his predecessor, Joe Biden, as the ‘autopen,’ but it appears no legal action will be taken against Biden or his team for their use of this device. Despite Trump’s accusations, the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has found no grounds to press charges.
On Wednesday, The New York Times revealed that Bondi’s department was unable to substantiate Trump’s allegations, leaving the matter without a criminal case. Trump has claimed that Biden and his advisors violated the law by utilizing the autopen, particularly in signing presidential pardons, and has pointed to this as evidence of Biden’s alleged ‘cognitive decline.’
Autopens have long been used by presidents to manage the vast amount of official documents requiring their signature. However, Trump has seized on this routine practice to suggest something more nefarious, casting doubt on Biden’s mental fitness.
In June, Trump described this situation as “one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history” in a memo he issued on the topic. Despite these strong words, the Department of Justice has not found any basis for legal proceedings.
But with questions about Biden’s mental competency, Trump has turned the 83-year-old’s usage of the autopen into something more sinister.
‘This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,’ Trump said in a presidential memo on the subject that he released in June.
But over at the DOJ, veteran prosecutors were wary of the case, the Times reported.
It was assigned to the team working under Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host who Trump selected to serve as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s (left) Department of Justice wasn’t able to follow up on President Donald Trump’s (right) demands to make a criminal case against President Joe Biden and his aides over the use of the autopen
Former President Joe Biden pushed back on claims spread by President Donald Trump that he wasn’t aware of what his aides were approving when using the autopen, especially the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term
Pirro’s team of prosecutors had also sought to secure an indictment against the six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video pushing servicemembers to not follow illegal orders.
A grand jury refused to indict in that case, making an indictment against Biden or his aides even more unlikely.
Investigators, the Times said, couldn’t figure out what law had been broken by the Biden White House’s use of the autopen.
The newspaper also noted that prosecutors were unsure if they could prosecute Biden, seeing that the Supreme Court ruled in a case pertaining to Trump that presidents have broad immunity.
But even a case against Biden’s aides seemed unworthy, as it never made its way in front of a grand jury, the Times said.
In an interview with the Times in July, Biden said he orally approved all the pardons and commutations he endorsed at the end of his term.
He called Trump and the President’s MAGA allies who pushed the autopen conspiracy theory ‘liars’ and said the autopen was used because ‘we’re talking about a whole lot of people.’
‘I made every decision,’ Biden also said.
In September, President Donald Trump created the ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ on the West Colonnade. Instead of depicting former President Joe Biden, Trump hung a photograph of an autopen device
Trump’s push to have his political rivals punished by the legal system comes after he complained throughout the 2024 White House race about the ‘weaponization’ of the DOJ.
Then, an ex-President, Trump, was indicted in four different cases while running for president again – a historic first.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has demanded that several political enemies be investigated – including former FBI Director James Comey, the Attorney General of New York Letitia James, former National Security Advisor John Bolton and Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought charges against Trump in two separate cases.
Despite a cancer diagnosis, Trump has continued to go after Biden.
And Trump has sought to make the ‘autopen’ nickname stick.
In September, as part of his ‘Presidential Walk of Fame,’ Trump hung a photograph of an autopen on the West Colonnade wall next to the Rose Garden, where Biden’s face should have been.
