The New York Times just revealed how Joe Biden handled the preemptive pardons he made with the ‘autopen’, which he did on the night before he left office. Some are making a big deal about this, but I’m not so sure given that Biden claims authority over the pardons which were granted in his name.

Also, I’m seeing stuff flying around that doesn’t provide all the context.

Here’s what they wrote:

[Emails] also show that use of the autopen was managed by Mr. Biden’s White House staff secretary, Ms. Feldman. She wanted to receive written accounts confirming Mr. Biden’s oral instructions in the meetings before having it used to produce the warrants recording the clemency actions, the emails show.

Mr. Biden completed the list of high-profile clemency decisions over two meetings, the emails show. One, on Jan. 18, included Mr. Zients, Mr. Siskel and another aide, Bruce Reed. Another, on the evening of Jan. 19, his final night as president, was with Mr. Siskel, Mr. Reed and three other top aides, Anthony Bernal, Steve Ricchetti and Annie Tomasini.

The emails show that Mr. Biden added the pre-emptive pardons for his family at the Jan. 19 meeting. They also suggest that he changed some of his thinking.

The Jan. 19 summary also showed that Mr. Biden made a late decision to pardon Ernest W. Cromartie II, a former city councilman in Columbia City, S.C. In 2010, he had pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge and later served a year in prison.

Mr. Biden started that day in South Carolina, attending a church service with a close political ally, Representative James Clyburn, who former aides say lobbied him afterward to help Mr. Cromartie. In the interview, Mr. Biden acknowledged that that was what had happened.

“I agreed with Jim and I pardoned him,” he said.

At the Jan. 19 meeting, which took place in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House residence, Mr. Biden kept his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk through such decisions, according to people familiar with the matter.

The emails show that an aide to Mr. Siskel sent a draft summary of Mr. Biden’s decisions at that meeting to an assistant to Mr. Zients, copying Mr. Siskel, at 10:03 p.m. The assistant forwarded it to Mr. Reed and Mr. Zients, asking for their approval, and then sent a final version to Ms. Feldman — copying many meeting participants and aides — at 10:28 p.m.

Three minutes later, Mr. Zients hit “reply all” and wrote, “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”

Yes, Zients was Biden’s Chief of Staff and he approved all the preemptive pardons, but he had just left a meeting with Joe Biden where all of this was discussed, assuming the reporting is accurate. If that’s the case, I don’t see how any of this is reversed on that decision by Zients.

I still think the idea of a ‘preemptive pardon’ is unconstitutional and that is where any grounds, in my opinion, might lie for reversing them in the court system. Trying to prove Biden didn’t approve them will be difficult, especially when he claims he did.