Well we know. The ‘autopen’ did. But nobody elected an autopen.
How did the process of Biden pardoning huge numbers of criminals and his family members happen? With the same kind of oversight and approvals process of a secretary approving an extra drink order for a business lunch on behalf of the CEO.
Near the beginning of his presidency in 2021, incoming staff secretary Jess Hertz wrote a memo to Biden, citing precedent from the Obama administration to argue his original signature should still be used for “pardon letters.”
By 2025, Biden had opted for the autopen to pardon five members of his family — including his brother and sister, who had been accused of leveraging the Biden family name for financial benefit. The decision to do so was made in a meeting that included First Lady Jill Biden’s top aide Anthony Bernal, according to internal emails.
But apparently not Joe Biden or even his wife, but his wife’s top aide. I miss the days when the country was just run by the dementia case’s community college PhD spouse… not her aide.
An email from Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, at 10:31pm the night of Jan. 19 — less than 14 hours before Biden was to leave office — confirmed the use of the presidential autopen for those pardons.
“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all the following pardons. Thanks, JZ,” the email from Zients’ account said.
So we have Biden’s chief of staff approving the use of an autopen for pardons. Not the guy who’s actually president. Except it’s not even his chief of staff, but the aide to the chief of staff.
Zients’ aide Rosa Po, who had access to Zients’ email account, wrote and sent the authorization of the president’s autopen to senior White House officials on Zients’ behalf.
This is exactly why I voted for Rosa.
The pardons were apparently approved by Jill Biden’s top aide and Rosa who works for the chief of staff. I’m not sure the Constitution specifically mentioned that the corrupt family members of presidents could be pardoned by the exercise of presidential powers by two aides and an autopen, but that’s why it’s a living Constitution.
For when the president is brain dead.