‘Signed using the Autopen’: Republican-led Oversight Committee declares Biden’s pardons invalid
The wonders truly do never cease, it seems. The GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee has claimed that former President Joe Biden experienced such “cognitive decline” while in office that he was not aware of the content of the various pardons that he signed in his name via autopen.
For those unfamiliar with what an autopen is, it works by using a machine to replicate a signature, using a stylus that follows a template of the signature’s path.
According to the letter released Thursday morning to Attorney General Pam Bondi, it “deems void President Biden’s executive actions that were signed using the Autopen, and the committee determines that action by the Department of Justice is warranted to address the legal consequences of that determination.”
The letter itself was made public alongside a 93-page report.
Biden himself has never publicly admitted that, calling those who say so “liars.” Aides for Biden have also defended his use of the autopen, saying that, while it was used, Biden was the one who made the decisions.
“This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency,” a Biden spokesperson said. “There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing. Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown.”
I wonder if it ever gets tiring for these Republicans, always searching for a morsel of truth that just isn’t there. They should be focusing on more important things, but we know that they won’t. Like a dog with a bone, their teeth are sunk in and they’re determined with that single-minded type of determinedness.
The committee’s demands that Attorney General Pam Bondi act on their declaration of Biden’s actions as “void” make it seem they are exploring legal ways to undo his grants of clemency. However, there is no precedent to reverse a pardon issued by a past president, say legal experts. In 2005, the Justice Department looked at the legality of a president’s use of the autopen and endorsed it, as long as it was the President using it.
Oh, Congressional Republicans. Everything but ending the shutdown or actually caring about their constituents, it seems.
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