Former President Joe Biden admitted to the New York Times that he did not individually sign off on each of the pardons issued via his autopen signature to batches of criminals at the end of his term, though he reportedly delineated criteria to staff.
In the final months of his term, Biden issued four large sets of pardons, three of which were categorical clemency actions covering large swaths of people, the Times noted Sunday.
Per the outlet, Biden approved standards to give out categorical pardons to criminals in his final months in office, but staff ultimately ran a final list of names that supposedly met the criteria through the autopen, though it had been revised after Biden delineated the requirements:
Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.
Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.
Citing emails reviewed among the Biden team, the Times noted that then-White House staff secretary Stefanie Feldman was in charge of the autopen.
The emails indicate that Biden would say what the criteria were for the batches of pardons in meetings with top advisers, including Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients and White House counsel Ed Siskel, who would then relay Biden’s wishes to their assistants, per the report.
The assistants would reportedly craft accounts that would be reviewed by senior advisers, like Zients and Siskel, as well as others in the meetings, and make their way to Feldman, who wanted written documentation of Biden’s instructions.
In one instance, on January 19, the day before Biden left office, emails show that Zients personally gave his own sign-off on a last-minute draft summary minutes after receiving an email seeking its approval, according to the Times.
“…Mr. Zients hit ‘reply all’ and wrote, ‘I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,’” according to the email.
The major revelations come as questions continue to mount about Biden’s cognitive acuity during his presidency, as well as the legitimacy of the pardons signed via autopen.
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Biden’s ‘defense’ of aides who used his autopen speaks volumes about who was REALLY in charge
Former President Joe Biden’s lame attempt to defend his last-minute pardons only confirms what everyone suspected: His staff ran wild with his autopen.
What else did they control?
In an interview with The New York Times, Biden claimed he “made every decision” himself when it came to the 25 autopen-signed pardon and commutation warrants that his White House issued in the final months of his presidency.
But then he admitted that he didn’t explicitly agree to each and every clemency winner.
His excuse: “We’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Which, actually, is a big part of the problem: Why so many?
The warrants commuted the sentences of about 4,000 inmates in total, including five child killers and several mass murderers on death row.
Plus, he handed out a few dozen full pardons, most notoriously to his own legally compromised family members.
Biden himself admits he wasn’t fully hands-on when it came to who was getting sprung or protected from future prosecution.
Exactly how involved was he? Not very: The Biden White House had a “process” for approving the pardons that seemed to only minimally include him.
Biden would supposedly give oral approval for thetermsof the warrants. Then assistants who weren’t even in those meetings would write up “blurbs” with descriptions of the president’s approval, which would get sent to Biden’s staff secretary, who’d then use autopen to sign off.
That’s a heckuva lot of power in the hands of Biden’s staff.
It gives credence to President Donald Trump’s claim that Biden’s “aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal [his] cognitive decline.”
That charge is being investigated by the Justice Department and Congress, but getting anyone in Biden’s inner circle to testify has been an exercise in pulling teeth.
Last week, Joe’s former doctor, Kevin O’Connor, pleaded the Fifth instead of answering a single question about the former president’s health.
Biden didn’t seem bothered by his staff’s liberal use of autopen, but he has a stake in pushing the narrative that he was A-OK with the setup.
What’s left of his battered legacy (and his pride) would be further tarnished by an admission that he wasn’t fully in charge.
Joe clearly meant to take the heat off by telling the Times he was the one making the decisions.
But his own words put the lie to that.
All they do is confirm that the GOPers trying to get answers about who was running the country under Biden are on the right track.
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Biden’s fraudulent pardons
New report shows White House staff’s ‘routine’ use of autopen without Biden’s final approval
OPINION:
On Dec. 12, President Biden granted clemency to about 1,500 people and pardoned 39 convicted of nonviolent crimes, an action the White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
Overall, Mr. Biden granted 4,245 acts of clemency during his four-year tenure in the White House, “far exceed[ing] the total of any other president since the beginning of the 20th century,” according to the Pew Research Center.
He commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates and issued “preemptive pardons” to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and members and staff of the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including former Rep. Liz Cheney.
An autopen, not Mr. Biden’s hand, signed the vast majority of those pardons. The president’s pardon power is absolute unless there is evidence that he was unaware or didn’t approve the use of the autopen, which, according to a blockbuster report from The New York Times, was exactly the case.
“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people. … Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used. … Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure,” The New York Times reported Monday.
In his post-presidency, Mr. Biden granted an interview with The New York Times to defend his unprecedented use of the autopen. Yet the article produces no direct contemporaneous evidence that Mr. Biden authorized any of his ninth-hour pardons.
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley has said that the chances of successfully challenging in court the use of an autopen on presidential pardons are “vanishingly low” unless the White House autopen was used without Mr. Biden’s consent. This would amount to “forgery, obstruction of justice, fraud or other serious crimes.”
Terry L. Turnipseed argued in the Journal of Technology Law & Policy in 2012 that it is unconstitutional for someone or something to affix the president’s signature on a legal document without the president being physically present. He cited historical proxy signature laws requiring the principal and proxy to be together.
According to The Times’ reporting, Mr. Biden didn’t personally approve individual names to be pardoned; he consented only to the “criteria” used in making these determinations. His staff thought it was “routine procedure” to affix his name to final versions of the pardons without him even personally reviewing them, let alone being physically present.
Mr. Trump’s post on Truth Social in March seems especially clairvoyant.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Mr. Trump wrote.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime,” Mr. Trump added.
The president continued in his post: “Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”
In June, Mr. Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Mr. Biden’s use of the autopen and to determine whether it was related to the former president’s mental decline while in office. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer has also opened an investigation into Mr. Biden’s use of the autopen and a coordinated White House cover-up.
Just last week, Mr. Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, pleaded the Fifth to the House committee, citing physician-patient privilege. When asked specifically whether he was told by White House staff to lie about Mr. Biden’s health during the Biden presidency, he refused to answer. Mr. Comer’s investigation is continuing.
Notably, the only pardon Mr. Biden signed with his own hand during the last hours of his presidency was that of his disgraced son, Hunter Biden, in December. Pending further scrutiny, it’s likely the only one that will hold up in court if contested.
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Watch: Roger Stone has the ‘Epstein’ solution…
The Epstein fallout has cracked open some major division inside the MAGA movement, and it’s not just about Epstein anymore. It’s about trust, transparency, and whether President Trump is truly surrounded by the right people in his second administration.
Half the movement is furious because they believe Pam Bondi completely botched the Epstein file release, and now, with the DOJ memo claiming there’s “nothing more to see,” it feels like justice has been swept under the rug yet again. These MAGA supporters were promised sunlight all over this issue. They were promised names. And they’re now watching, in real time, as the usual deep state suspects walk away totally unscathed.
The other half of the MAGA movement, while still disappointed, argues that there are bigger fish to fry, like the 2020 election, ActBlue’s financial empire, and Biden’s DOJ corruption. Epstein, they say, can wait.
But this divide is creating serious problems for Trump, his base, and reportedly, for the high-ups at the FBI.
According to sources close to the situation, both Dan Bongino and Kash Patel are livid over how Bondi handled the rollout. In fact, insiders say Bongino is so angry, he’s prepared to walk away entirely if Bondi isn’t removed from her post.
One of the biggest demands from Trump’s America First supporters has been the truth around Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed client list. MAGA was promised sunlight on this issue. They were promised justice. And instead, many feel as if they’ve been gaslit, stalled, and handed recycled documents while the real power players skate free, without a care in the world.
From the very beginning, many believed Pam Bondi botched the Epstein rollout. MAGA supporters haven’t forgotten that awkward February stunt at the White House, where so-called “Epstein files” were handed out to conservative influencers. They were actually old files that turned out to be publicly available court records everyone had already seen. The base expected bombshells. What they got felt like a cover-up. It was an embarrassing moment for Bondi and the Trump administration.
Bondi even made the cover of the box look like some official classified documents…After that stunt fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a supposed truckload of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration “sat on these documents; no one did anything with them.” She then went on to say the following: “Sadly these people don’t believe in transparency, but I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty.”
Pam was digging herself a hole that she may never get out of… because now, after months of Pam’s hype and speculation, the DOJ has released a memo that’s ignited a political firestorm, claiming there is no Epstein list and there will be no further disclosures. The End.
…
No matter where you stand on the issue, there’s no denying that it’s causing a serious rift within the movement.
Which brings us to Roger Stone…
While some are fuming and others are checking out, Roger Stone is watching this mess unfold and he’s offering something rare in DC: a real, tangible solution.
🚨EPSTEIN.
The solution is for POTUS to direct his Attorney General to instruct the interim U.S. Attorney for the SDNY to move to unseal all grand jury testimony presented when the TRUMP ADMIN. charged Epstein with child sex trafficking.
The government should unseal the search warrants executed on Epstein’s private island and Manhattan townhouse — which remain sealed pursuant to a motion filed by federal prosecutors, including Maurene Comey.
EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW IS IN THOSE DOCUMENTS.
It was the TRUMP ADMIN. — not Biden, and certainly not Obama — that moved in federal court to finally bring Epstein to justice.
A comment from the Revolver comments on the article:
I have a guess as to what’s actually going on. It’s only a guess; I don’t have any solid evidence, but it would explain a lot of people’s behavior better than the popular theories. Some claim the Epstein evidence was destroyed already and there’s nothing to release. If that were true, I would expect the administration to say something to the effect that, while they don’t doubt the material may have existed, it’s simply nowhere to be found now. This theory also fails to explain why there would be any division in how the case is being handled. Another popular explanation is that the administration is covering up the evidence to protect themselves and possibly Trump himself from being implicated in Epstein’s crimes. I doubt this, because it’s almost inconceivable the Biden administration wouldn’t have released any dirt they had on Trump. There’s an obvious theory few people seem to be talking about, though. There are two kinds of people who want to hide blackmail material: the people being blackmailed and the people doing the blackmailing. Essentially, I think the Trump administration got their hands on the One Ring, and they chose to try to use it against their enemies. Trump does seem to be winning an awful lot of late, and many of the higher ups in the DNC seem unusually deflated and reluctant to offer any fight beyond spouting some toothless rhetoric on MSNBC and the like. To be clear, I don’t think they’re continuing to run an Epstein style sex ring or anything like that, but I do suspect they’re using the existing evidence to put the screws to compromised Democrats and RINOs. It makes perfect sense from a purely pragmatic Machiavellian perspective. I believe it’s morally wrong and it will come back to bite us eventually, but I can understand why Trump would make the decision I think he’s made.
- LLimboHoratio Scaevola 19 hours ago You are making a lot more sense than most on here pal. Keep it up
thunderpunch 7 hours ago I too have had this same thought and even thought of the “one ring” reference. Imagine you’re handed all of that blackmail material on a silver platter, you now could get almost anything done you want to get done depending on who’s on that list.The other theory I had is that it would make a HUGE “october surprise” to drop it right before the midterms.What would be really machiavellian would be to use it and then drop it after you’ve gotten what you wanted.either way I think the right thing to do would be to release it and watch the fire. people elected trump because he was different and more transparent about his motives and intentions. 2nd term trump just has weird energy compared to 1st term trump
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