House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed Friday that his committee is investigating former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue controversial last-minute pardons.
“So our newest investigation at Oversight Committee is we’re investigating the autopen, and I think we’ve identified the staffer” who operated it, Comer said during a speech at the Republican National Lawyers Association’s policy conference in Washington.
The committee’s inquiry centers on whether Biden, who was in declining cognitive health during his final months in office, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the device to place his signature on documents or whether senior aides issued pardons on his behalf.
“If what we think is going to play out on the autopen [investigation], it’s going to create a strong case on the pardons,” Comer said.
Although the autopen has been used by presidents for decades, including by former President Barack Obama to extend the Patriot Act in 2011, the matter has never been tested in court when applied to pardons. A 2005 Justice Department opinion concluded a president could direct someone else to sign on his behalf, but a federal appeals court ruled last year that pardons don’t even require a written form to be valid.
Still, legal experts say some aspects of the last-minute pardons, such as Biden’s blanket pardon for his son Hunter Biden, could raise constitutional questions.
“A blanket pardon might be problematic because it’s not clear what you’re pardoning somebody for,” Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler previously told the Washington Examiner.
Speaking to the Washington Examiner after the event, Comer added, “We just are trying to figure out who gave the orders, if anybody gave the orders,” to use the autopen on the pardons.
During a Q&A with the audience, Comer confirmed that House Republicans have engaged in conversations about amending the Constitution to preclude presidents from pardoning themselves or their families. Comer noted that he’s spoken with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently about the possibility.
The announcement builds on a controversy that gained steam in March, when President Donald Trump and his allies raised alarms about Biden’s final clemency orders. Trump claimed that because many of the pardons were signed with an autopen, they are “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.”
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Among the recipients of Biden’s last-minute clemency grants were close family members, including his brothers, James B. Biden and Francis W. Biden, sister-in-law Sara Jones Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, and brother-in-law John T. Owens, as well as high-profile political figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and former Jan. 6 Committee members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
While some legal experts have defended the legitimacy of the autopen process, critics argue Biden may not have been in a position to authorize its use. Concerns over Biden’s physical and mental state were elevated this week ahead of the release of Original Sin, a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, which reports that top aides worked to conceal Biden’s deteriorating cognitive abilities from the public.