President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday to investigate the Biden administration’s use of the autopen and alleged actions by aides to hide President Biden’s cognitive decline, amid reports Mr. Biden was mentally checked out while his advisers ran the country.
In an order released by the White House, the president called for Ms. Bondi and Counsel to the President David Warrington to investigate “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.”
Mr. Trump said the validity of Mr. Biden’s actions could be questioned if it turns out aides acted in place of him.
The announcement comes a day after Mr. Trump’s pardon attorney, Ed Martin told Justice Department staff he is investigating the Biden administration’s frequent use of the autopen to sign executive orders and thousands of pardons on Mr. Biden’s behalf.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Mr. Trump wrote in a memorandum to Ms. Bondi. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Mr. Trump has opined that he believes left-wing aides were steering the Biden administration in directions Mr. Biden would not have supported if he had not been suffering from cognitive decline.
The former president “never talked about open borders, where criminals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes can flow into our country at will,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger. This is TREASON at the Highest Level! They did it to destroy our Country.”
The probe follows reports in new tell-all books and news reports that former aides were making all of the decisions as Mr. Biden became increasingly frail, both physically and mentally.
The latest bombshell book about the Biden presidency , written by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, describes the recollections of dozens of mostly anonymous former Biden aides who said Mr. Biden was only available to work a few hours a day.
“Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board,” one aide recalls, according to the book.
Mr. Trump’s memorandum ordering the probe came hours after the House Oversight and Government Reform panel announced it is expanding an investigation into whether top Biden aides “ran interference” for the former president. The committee also will investigate whether those aides, on Mr. Biden’s behalf, issued sweeping pardons for his family and Democrat allies, as well as thousands of pardons and commutations to convicted felons, including individuals who killed children and police officers.
Mr. Trump’s memorandum said the “vast majority” of Mr. Biden’s executive actions were signed by the autopen, particularly during the second half of his term.
“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” Mr. Trump wrote in the memorandum.
Mr. Martin opened a probe into the Biden administration’s use of the autopen to pardon and commute the sentences of thousands of people.
Mr. Martin, in an email to Justice Department employees, said the probe would determine whether Mr. Biden, who left office at age 82, “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of an autopen or other means.”
The presidential autopen, a device used to electronically sign documents on behalf of the president, is secured in the West Wing, typically inside the office of the staff secretary.
Under typical administrations, the autopen is tightly controlled and users of the pen are logged meticulously. The logs are sent to the National Archives when a president leaves office.
The exact number of pardons and executive orders and other memoranda signed by autopen during the Biden administration is unknown, but some analysts say it numbers in the thousands and that Mr. Biden may not have been aware of its heavy use.
The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, examined 51 clemency warrants bearing Mr. Biden’s signature. The warrants granted clemency to 4,245 people, a record for any U.S. president.
More than half of the warrants issued during Mr. Biden’s administration, the Oversight Project found, were signed by one of two autopen signatures.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.