Biden Defends Using Autopen for Clemency Actions

Former President Joe Biden defended his use of an autopen in a recent interview. He explained his administration’s reasons for using this technology, which has sparked controversy.

The interview with the New York Times focused on his use of an autopen for the last pardons he issued at the end of his time in office.

In his final weeks as president, Biden granted clemency and pardons to more than 1,500 people. The White House called it the largest single-day act of clemency by any U.S. president. Speaking to the Times on Thursday, Biden said that he “made every decision” on his own.

“We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people,” the Democrat said.

However, the Times reported that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” according to the former president and his aides.

“Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, [Biden] signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” the Times’s report read.

Instead of asking the president to sign updated versions of official documents over and over, his staff used an autopen to add Biden’s signature to the final versions.

Biden’s comments came as Republicans criticized him for using the autopen on a huge number of official documents.

In June, President Donald Trump sent a memo to the Department of Justice. He directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the autopen use and see if it was linked to a decline in Biden’s mental state.

“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,” Trump wrote.

“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.”

Also in June, Trump told reporters that he thought it was “inappropriate” to use an autopen at all, even though past presidents have done so.

“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important,” Trump said. “Even if you’re signing ambassadorships or – and I consider that important, I think it’s inappropriate.”

“You have somebody that’s devoting four years of their life or more to being an ambassador. I think you really deserve that person deserves to get a real signature… not an autopen signature.”