In a dramatic twist, Donald Trump has nullified all executive orders signed by Joe Biden using an autopen, intensifying the ongoing dispute over the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency.
Trump announced on Truth Social, “I am officially revoking all executive orders and any actions not personally signed by Crooked Joe Biden, as the autopen was operated illegally.”
He further asserted, “Joe Biden was not involved in the autopen process, and should he claim otherwise, he will face charges of perjury.”
While presidents have the authority to rescind executive orders from their predecessors, including pardons, there is no legal provision to revoke clemency once granted.
Throughout his presidency, Biden issued 162 executive orders.
Notably contentious were the autopen-signed pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of the January 6 committee.
Biden also pardoned family members – James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden – on his last full day in office.
The Democrat’s only hand-signed pardon during his final months in office was also his most pivotal – the order signed for his recovering cocaine-addict son, Hunter.
An image of an autopen signing former U.S. President Joe Biden’s signature is displayed in place of a portrait Biden next to portraits of U.S President Donald Trump at the ‘Presidential Walk of Fame’ along the Colonnade at the White House
The 83-year-old claims he personally authorized every single pardon and commutation where the autopen was used.Â
The device, which has been used by Republican and Democratic presidents including Trump, replicates signatures.
Trump says he only uses the autopen to sign insignificant papers and that it should not be used for important orders, such as pardons.
The president has frequently called into question the legitimacy of the orders, citing Biden’s declining cognitive health and reports that senior White House aides frequently made executive decisions on his behalf. Â
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee last month asked the Justice Department to carry out a review of every single executive order made by Biden.
It released a lengthy report which described a deeply ‘flawed process’, akin to a ‘presidential pardon game of telephone’ used in the Biden White House.
‘The Committee has found that President Biden’s aides coordinated a cover-up of the president’s diminishing faculties,’ it said.
The GOP report shed light on the never-before-exposed chain of command, which appears to have relied heavily on secondary and tertiary information passed along by decision makers who were not even present in certain meetings.
Joe Biden in Nantucket with his family on Thanksgiving
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen are spotted in Nantucket on Thanksgiving
Investigators describe the structure as ‘lax’, and the instances of the ‘clemency actions taken in the final days of the Biden presidency’ are called the ‘most flagrant.’
One particular instance laid out in the report highlights ex-White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients admitting that not all decisions made by the president were formally documented.
The pardons of Biden family members in the final days of the administration were communicated ‘second-hand’ to a Zients aide, Rosa Po, who informed Zients about the pardons.
He then ‘verbally authorized the use of the autopen from home’ without knowing who actually executed the signatures.
Acting through his aide’s email, Zients approved the autopen’s use for the clemency actions without confirming with Biden that those were in fact his wishes.
Due to concerns about the president’s mental state and the opaque approval process, the committee has deemed all autopen-signed executive actions without direct written presidential consent to be invalid.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in October that her team was ‘reviewing the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons.’
