Latest news with #autopen
Fox News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Evening Edition: The Probe Into President Biden's Autopen Use
Republicans have launched an investigation into former President Biden's use of the autopen and whether his signature on certain White House documents, including pardons, is valid. California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa joins the FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition to discuss why he believes it's possible that the former President did not authorize some autopen signatures and that there was an effort by the White House to cover up Biden's 'diminished capacity.' Rep. Issa also weighs in on concerns about the Senate's version of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The shocking date of Biden's first use of the autopen exposed... and it's earlier than previously known
During an explosive Republican-led hearing on Joe Biden 's rapid decline over the course of his four-year presidency, shocking details emerged about the extensive use of an autopen by the former president. One of the witnesses called by the Senate Judiciary committee was Theo Wold, currently a Visiting Fellow for Law and Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC - based conservative think tank. Wold is also a board member of the Oversight Project, an independent, nonprofit organization previously a part of Heritage. The Oversight Project's research discovered that the first time President Joe Biden used an autopen was five days into his presidency, Wold stated as part of his sworn testimony. "The autopen is a device that signs the president's signature to a document. The Oversight Project, of which I am a board member, has discovered that the Biden White House deployed an autopen to affix President Biden's signature to pardons, prison commutations, executive orders, and presidential proclamations,' Wold noted. "The Oversight Project's research has found that the Biden White House first deployed the autopen to affix President Biden's signature to a proclamation on day five of his administration and that there were at least three different autopen signatures in use throughout president Biden's tenure in the White House,' Wold continued. He added: 'In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants and executive orders. Autopen use skyrocketed from there. We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half, 32 in total, were signed with an autopen.' Another eyebrow-raising revelation Wold shared was that after a review of the president's public schedule, and publicly available media, the Oversight Project was not able to find evidence of Biden 'personally approving these actions, such as a statement.' Were legally binding documents signed without President Biden's knowledge or consent? The American people deserve to know whether unelected bureaucrats usurped presidential power via autopen. @ItsYourGov @RealTheoWold — Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) June 18, 2025 Wold additionally disclosed that many of the days the autopen was used were days that the President was in Washington, DC for at least part of the day. Wold was formerly the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the first Trump Administration. Before that, he served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, before which he testified Wednesday. Echoing Wold's concerns about evidence of Biden personally approving the times his autopen was used, Senator Josh Hawley called up the former president to release documents. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on former President Biden and the autopen: "If you want an answer to the question 'Did Joe Biden actually assent to the use of the autopen?'... There should be a record of it. This is a binary question...I call on President the documents." — CSPAN (@cspan) June 18, 2025 Hawley's fellow Missouri colleague Eric Schmitt doubled down on he claims that nameless and faceless staffers were in control during the course of the Biden Presidency. Schmitt brought a graphic with him to Wednesday's hearing which showcased blacked out silhouettes, underneath which '46th, Liberal Staffers, 2021-2025' was written. . @SenEricSchmitt / @Eric_Schmitt calls out faceless nameless staffers as being truly in control during the Biden Presidency in today's Senate Judiciary Hearing titled Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution. Here for @DailyMail! — Victoria Snitsar Churchill (@snits_churchy) June 18, 2025 Earlier in the hearing, Democrat Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) tried to flip the script on his Republican colleagues. In his opening statement, Durbin attempted to paint Donald Trump, 79, as the one who is not fully mentally competent, not his predecessor Joe Biden. To prove his point, Durbin brought up the recent incident of Trump saying the UK was the same thing as the EU. A clip of Trump announcing the signing of the US/UK trade deal with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the G7 meeting in Canada earlier this week quickly went viral. 'Now, I'd like you to see a short video that includes some other examples of cognitive ability,' Durbin stated, prior to showing a video compilation of what he said were gaffes, not by Biden, but Trump. After the video, Durbin asked 'do any of these statements raise the question of cognitive ability?' Standing alongside Starmer, Trump said on Monday: 'We signed it and it's done', before mistakenly announcing the deal was with the European Union, rather than the UK. He added: 'It's a fair deal for both. It'll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.' And as Trump attempted to open a black folder with the signed agreement inside, several papers spilled out on to the floor, prompting Starmer to quickly bend down and intervene. 'Oops sorry about that,' the president said, before Starmer tried to brush off the gaffe by quipping: 'It's a very important document.' A majority of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not show up to take part in Wednesday's hearing. Senate Republicans are doubling down on the efforts of Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has called former top Biden White House aides to appear for transcribed interviews. A number of these former aides were subpoenaed last C ongress, and had their subpoenas blocked by the Biden White House. Joe Biden's former White House Physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor has been issued a formal subpoena to appear before the House oversight committee, after not agreeing to appear before the committee voluntarily. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer announced earlier in June that he was issuing a formal subpoena to Biden's former White House Physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor. The move was the latest escalation as the top Republican-led committee ramped up its investigation into the 'cover-up' of former President Joe Biden's mental decline. Chairman Comer ordered O'Connor to appear for a deposition on June 27 before his committee. Commenting on the importance of his investigation, Comer told members of the media earlier in June that the 'American people deserve full transparency and the House Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation to provide answers and accountability. The cover-up of President Biden's mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation's history.' Comer's subpoena comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's recent announcement via executive order, demanding a federal investigation into former President Biden's staff. '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,' Trump said in the order. Under Trump's order, all of the pardons, clemency grants, executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other presidential policy decisions issued by Biden will be investigated. Actions under review would include Biden's pardons for son Hunter and other family members and orders related to a variety of areas including education, immigration, health care, climate change and more. Trump has argued the use of the autopen invalidates Biden's orders. If his administration can get the courts to agree, it could undo thousands of actions taken by the former president. It's unclear which documents from the Biden administration were signed by the then-president and which may have been signed by an electronic pen. Biden hit back at Trump hours after the executive order was signed, accusing the president of seeking out distractions to avoid criticism over bad legislation making its way through Congress. 'Let me be clear,' he said. 'I made the decisions during my presidency. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false. 'This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans,' Biden stated. Biden added at the time that Trump and his allies 'are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.' During his time in office, Biden was pictured signing some orders while in office, including ones on the use of AI and on gun safety issues. Biden's allies have pushed back on reports his mental and physical health were on the decline during his tenure.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump alleges Biden autopen misuse: whoever 'used it was the president'
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has long focused on his predecessor's use of the autopen during his presidency to sign official documents. Now he has called for an investigation into former President Joe Biden's reliance on the mechanical device. Presidential use of the autopen has not been outlawed or ruled unconstitutional. And Trump himself has acknowledged allowing his staff to use it to sign letters on his behalf. Yet the president has come down repeatedly on Biden for using an autopen amid fresh allegations that the ex-president's health was in decline while he was in office. He has accused former White House aides, without evidence, of signing documents, including presidential pardons, without Biden's knowledge. "Whoever used the autopen was the president," he told reporters on June 5, implying aides were assuming the role of commander-in-chief. "And that is wrong, it's illegal, it's so bad." Presidents are thought to have employed the autopen for more than 200 years, since the time of Thomas Jefferson, who obtained one of the machines after it came under patent in 1803, according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Gerald Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are all known to have made use of the device. Obama became the first president to rely on an autopen to sign a piece of legislation in 2011, in order to push through a bill extending the Patriot Act that arrived on his desk while he was on a trip to France. Trump orders investigation of Joe Biden's alleged 'cognitive decline' and use of autopen The dispute with Biden goes further: Trump and his aides have accused Biden's staff of illegal activity. "It's whether or not the president of the United States knew it was being used, and if not, who was using it in his name, which is clearly illegal behavior," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a June 3 briefing. The former president knocked down the allegations, calling them a "distraction," in a June 4 statement in response to Trump's latest assault on him. Biden said he "made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations" during his presidency. The Justice Department in 2005 determined that use of the autopen was legal. "We find that, pursuant to this understanding, a person may sign a document by directing that his signature be affixed to it by another," a DOJ memo said. Legal scholars have further argued that nothing in the Constitution requires presidents to sign pardons, even if Biden did use an autopen. Elaborating on his views, Trump said on June 5 that he believes it's "inappropriate" to use the autopen for documents, even for relatively minor directives such as ambassador appointments. "I think it's very disrespectful to people when they get an autopen signature," he said. Trump admitted in his remarks to reporters that he uses the autopen, too. But he suggested he does not use the device that mimics his signature when he signs important documents. "Autopens, to me, are used when thousands of letters come in from young people all over the country," Trump said. He said the president of the United States receives thousands of letters a week, and it's not possible for him to respond to each one individually. "To me, that's where autopens start and stop," he said. "I'm not a big autopen person," Trump declared. "It's an easy way out." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump accuses Biden of misusing presidential autopen
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump reveals identity of Joe Biden 'deep state' official he believes wielded the autopen to sign orders
Donald Trump has suggested which former 'deep state' official he believes may behind Joe Biden 's infamous autopen. Speaking to the press from the Oval Office on Tuesday, the Republican claimed that a former high-ranking Department of Justice official may have been part of the scandal. An autopen enables its operator to produce signatures, in this case Biden's, potentially giving whoever controlled it power over the president's official business. Trump has slammed the use of the autopen under Biden's administration and how the Democrat allegedly used it to sign pardons and executive orders. But Biden pushed back in a statement this month, denying anyone else made presidential decisions under his tenure and claiming he was in charge. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,' his statement read. 'Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false.' Trump opened an investigation last week to determine 'who ran the United States while President Biden was in office' with a major focus on 'examining policy documents signed with an autopen, who authorized its use, and the validity of the resulting Presidential policy decisions.' Responding to a question about the LA riots on Tuesday, Trump pivoted and teed off on a rant about the autopen. 'You know, we're moving murderers out of our country that were put here by Biden or the autopen,' he told reporters. 'The autopen really did it,' 'The people, whether it's Lisa Monaco or whoever operated the autopen, these are criminals, people are criminals and allowed these criminals into our country,' Trump continued. Monaco was a longtime Barack Obama and Biden aide who held powerful roles for both administrations. From 2013-2017, Monaco was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to President Obama. She then left government before rejoining again to serve four years as Biden's deputy attorney general. While serving under Biden Monaco oversaw the Justice Department's massive effort to track down and charge those who participated in the January 6th Capitol protest. The investigation - one of the largest in DOJ history - yielded criminal charges against over 1,500 defendants. Reports indicate that Monaco was in frequent contact with the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office coordinating how the office would use a specific statute to charge defendants with obstruction of an official proceeding. Microsoft recently hired Monaco to serve as their head of global affairs where she will oversee cybersecurity policy and work with foreign governments. Monaco did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment. Some online reacted to Trump's suggestion with outrage, saying the former Justice Department worker has ties to the 'deep state.' 'That's quite the deep state resume,' one X user wrote of her long government experience. Under Trump's order to probe the autopen, all of the pardons, clemency grants, executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other presidential policy decisions issued by Biden will be investigated. Actions under review would include Biden's pardons for son Hunter and Dr. Anthony Fauci and orders related to a variety of areas including education, immigration, health care, climate change and more. Trump has argued the use of the autopen invalidates Biden's orders. If his administration can get the courts to agree, it could undo thousands of actions taken by the former president.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
American presidents have long used autopens. Just ask Trump.
Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed Joe Biden's use of an autopen during his presidency, going so far as to center its usage in a broad investigation Trump announced Wednesday into his predecessor. But politicians on both sides of the aisle are deeply familiar with the tool. The autopen — also referred to as the robot pen — replicates an individual's signature using a writing utensil, rather than a scanned and printed version of it. The tool, which resembles a small printer with a long arm that allows users to attach a pen to the center, has a long history of use in American politics. The device was first patented in 1803, according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, an independent research organization that collects original manuscripts and historical documents. Iterations of the autopen have been used by presidents as far back as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that 'I could not, now therefore, live without' the device he used to duplicate letters. 'The Autopen has long been a tool for the world's most influential leaders, allowing them to more effectively apply their time and attention to important issues without compromising the impact of personalized correspondence," according to The Autopen Co., which sells the machines. U.S. leaders on both sides of the aisle have used the autopen for decades — and have faced criticism for their use of the tool. During Lyndon Johnson's administration, the autopen was featured in The National Enquirer for an article headlined 'One of the Best Kept Secrets in Washington: The Robot That Sits In For The President.' Even Trump himself has said he used autopens, but 'only for very unimportant papers.' 'We may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter because it's nice,' Trump said in March, according to The Associated Press. 'You know, we get thousands and thousands of letters, letters of support for young people, from people that aren't feeling well, etcetera. But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful.' In 2004, George W. Bush's secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, faced criticism from some veterans for using an autopen to sign condolence letters to families of troops killed in the Iraq War. In 2011, Barack Obama used an autopen to sign a Patriot Act extension — becoming the first known, apparent use of the tool by a president for legislation — and used it subsequently in his administration. The move resulted in Republicans questioning the constitutionality of Obama's decision, though Bush's Office of Legal Counsel, which is part of the Department of Justice, had already concluded the use of autopens was constitutional. 'The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,' the office's 2005 ruling stated. "Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President's signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.' There is no specific law governing a president's use of an autopen. But the ruling from the Department of Justice hasn't stopped Trump from accusing Biden and his team of illegally using the tool, alleging that Biden's team used an autopen to sign documents without Biden's permission or knowledge. Trump has also claimed that Biden's round of pardons — including 'preemptive pardons' of Jan. 6 investigators, his son Hunter Biden and Anthony Fauci — were illegal and are 'void' and 'vacant.' However, most legal scholars are in agreement that pardons cannot be overturned once granted. In 1869, a federal court ruled, 'The law undoubtedly is, that when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it, any more than there is power to revoke any other completed act.' Biden has denied the claims that any decision was ever made or issued in his name without his approval or knowledge. Trump and other Republican accusers have provided no evidence that aides used an autopen without the former president's approval. 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,' Biden told POLITICO in a statement. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false. This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.'
