Who did Joe Biden pardon using autopen? Can presidential pardons be overturned?
GOP House members released their long-promised report on former President Joe Biden’s “cognitive decline” and said pardons signed by autopen are void.
The GOP-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, after months of investigation, finally released their findings on Tuesday. The 100-page scathing report concludes that because of the former presidents “cognitive decline” that Biden’s executive actions and pardons signed using autopen should be void.
The staff report titled “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House,” the report offered little that wasn’t already public knowledge. However, makes sweeping accusations and claims without definitive proof that Biden’s inner circle tried to cover up his health issues and that aides conspired to enact policy behind Biden’s back.
Representative James Comer, chair of the committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi in which he requested that the Department of Justice “conduct a comprehensive review of all executive actions” and to verify that Biden “duly authorized” them.
The GOP report also criticized the “haphazard documentation process” for Biden’s pardons, calling into question if he made the decisions on his own.
Who did Joe Biden pardon using autopen?
In the final days of the Biden administration after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, there were concerns that once sworn in the new president would take revenge on his perceived enemies and go after Biden’s family members. In order to protect those people from retribution Biden signed a number of pre-emptive pardons.
Some of those include the following people:
- James Biden: Joe Biden’s brother
- Valerie Biden Owens: Joe Biden’s sister,
- Sara Jones Biden: Joe Biden’s sister-in-law
- Anthony Fauci
- General Mark Milley
- Members of the January 6 committee
Biden told The New York Times that because there were “a whole lot of people” that were pardoned an autopen had been used. But he added, “I made every decision.”
He insisted in the legality of its use, something presidents of both parties have used including Trump, and called the rabblerousing over the matter by the GOP a distraction.
Can presidential pardons be overturned?
There was universal agreement among legal scholars that spoke to PBS that the Constitution doesn’t require a direct human signature. Furthermore, legal memoranda and judicial decisions over the years support the use of an autopen for such purposes.
Additionally, Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford Law School professor and constitutional law expert, states that “the Constitution doesn’t even require that the pardon be written.” She points out that “Article II just says that the President has the power to pardon.”
Another thing that could put sand in the gears of the GOP effort to void Biden’s pardons is that there is no constitutional mechanism to overturn pardons once granted according to legal scholars.
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