US EditionEmails Show Questions Raised Over Use of Autopen in White House Clemency Process
Internal emails reveal confusion among Biden's team over thousands of clemencies signed by autopen, raising legal and procedural concerns about presidential review and approval.
- President Joe Biden used an autopen to sign about 2,500 clemency actions, including pardons and commutations, announced on January 17, 2025.
- Internal memos and emails reveal concerns about whether Biden personally approved the mass pardons and clemency grants during his final months in office.
- Senior staff initially recommended Biden personally sign clemency documents, but by late in his term the autopen was used frequently amid reduced presidential engagement.
- In a July 2025 interview, Biden affirmed that he personally made all the pardon decisions and explained that the autopen was utilized due to the large number of individuals involved.
- The clemency actions sparked investigations by the White House Counsel, Department of Justice, and House Oversight Committee, which scheduled testimony on September 18, 2025, to review the autopen use and pardons.
30 Articles
30 Articles
Top Biden officials questioned and criticized how his team issued pardons, used autopen: report
High-ranking Biden officials raised concerns about the way his team handed out pardons and made use of an autopen near the end of his administration, according to a report.
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Biden Aides Questioned Final Pardons, Autopen Use, Emails Show
High-ranking Biden administration officials privately raised concerns about the former president's sweeping use of pardons and heavy reliance on an autopen during his final months in office, according to internal emails. After Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Dec. 1, 2024, the White House scrambled to identify additional recipients for clemency, people familiar with the process told Axios, which reported on Saturday it had obtained the administr…
Biden Officials Raised Concerns About Use of Autopen
“High-ranking Biden administration officials repeatedly questioned and criticized how the president’s team decided on controversial pardons and allowed the frequent use of an autopen to sign measures late in his term,” according to internal emails obtained by Axios. “The messages are the latest signs of the chaos surrounding the 82-year-old former president during the final weeks of his administration, in two areas that are now being investigate…
Bombshell Memos: Biden Aides Believed He Should Sign Pardons by Hand, He Outsourced Approval to VP - The Virginia Star
by Steven Richards and John Solomon Internal memos obtained by Just the News show President Joe Biden’s aides believed at the beginning of his administration that he had an obligation to personally sign official presidential actions, including pardons, and chronicle how the former president later outsourced clemency decisions to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The memos were gathered as part of a sweeping review by the Trump White House int…
Checked out: Biden staff scrambled to make thousands of pardons look presidential
New documents show that President Biden was checked out of decisions on pardoning felons and commuting the sentences of death-row inmates while his aides worked to make him look involved on paper.
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