President Biden’s legally embattled son, Hunter Biden, sat in on last-minute pardon decisions at the White House, a top former presidential aide told House investigators.

Former Biden Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said it was outside of normal White House procedures that the president’s son was “involved” with pardon discussions at the end of Mr. Biden’s presidency and even sat in on several meetings about clemency decisions.

Mr. Zients revealed Hunter Biden’s involvement in a closed-door interview with lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee. The panel is examining Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline while he was president, as well as the administration’s heavy use of an autopen to sign warrants that granted clemency to thousands of criminals and a slew of preemptive pardons for favored lawmakers and administration officials.

The chairman of the committee said lawmakers likely will issue a report soon on their findings.

Lawmakers say they have determined through interviews of former Biden aides and Biden administration emails that Mr. Biden was not closely involved in deciding who would receive pardons, commutations and sentence reductions. Thousands of felons were granted clemency in the final days of Mr. Biden’s presidency, which ended on Jan. 20.

On Dec. 1, Mr. Biden personally signed a pardon for his son, who was facing prison time stemming from two criminal cases.

Hunter Biden was found guilty on June 11, 2024, of three federal gun charges. Three months later, he entered a guilty plea on nine charges in a federal tax fraud case.

A source familiar with Mr. Zients’ testimony did not specify when Hunter Biden sat in on the pardon discussions at the White House, but the vast majority of commutations and pardons were granted in late January.

Mike Howell, executive director of the conservative watchdog group Oversight Project, said he long suspected Hunter Biden was involved in the pardoning decisions.

The Oversight Project was the first to uncover heavy use of the autopen on clemency warrants and other documents, after lawyers for the organization scrutinized the signatures.

“It is well established at this point that former President Biden was not in command, and external influences took advantage of a White House without a president,” Mr. Howell said.

Oversight Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, said the committee has conducted hours of interviews with top Biden aides and examined hundreds of emails about the Biden administration’s use of the autopen, and now likely has enough information to issue a report and recommendations to the Trump administration.

The Justice Department is also investigating the autopen signatures on thousands of pardons and commutations. Mr. Trump has labeled the clemency documents signed by the autopen “worthless.”

Mr. Zients, who spoke to House investigators on Thursday, said Mr. Biden’s decision-making had “slowed” during his time in office and that decisions that once required three meetings “eventually began to require a fourth,” a source familiar with his testimony said.

Mr. Zients also said that, following Mr. Biden’s disastrous June 27, 2024, debate with President Trump in Atlanta, he told White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor that the then-president should get a physical and a cognitive test.

Dr. O’Connor told Mr. Zients he would “take his suggestion under advisement.”

Dr. O’Connor, when questioned by investigators earlier this year about Mr. Biden’s cognitive health, remained silent and asserted his Fifth Amendment right to protect himself against self-incrimination.

Earlier this month, the National Archives and Records Administration handed over Biden administration memos to Justice Department investigators that detailed steps taken to create a record that would ensure Mr. Biden appeared to be the decision-maker for the thousands of pardons signed by autopen during his final days in office.

National Archives officials searched its records on the administration’s commutation of nearly every federal death sentence but could “not find a version indicating President Biden’s approval.”

Mr. Biden pardoned more than 4,200 people, more than any other president.

Mr. Zients gave the final sign-off on the huge slate of pardons and sentence reductions. But Mr. Biden has denied claims he was uninvolved in the decisions.

He told The New York Times this summer that he voiced permission for all the clemency warrants and criticized the Trump administration and congressional Republicans for investigating the matter.

Mr. Biden did not approve of each one. Instead, he said, he approved “the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.”

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.