Former President Joe Biden is pushing back against intensifying scrutiny over his administration’s use of an autopen — a mechanical device that replicates a person’s signature — during the final weeks of his presidency.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Biden stood firm on his decisions surrounding a sweeping clemency initiative that pardoned over 1,500 individuals.
“We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people,” Biden told the outlet.
Despite relying on the autopen, he emphasized, “I made every decision.”
Biden’s defense comes as new questions surface about just how much personal involvement he had in one of the largest acts of clemency in U.S. history. While he claimed full responsibility for the decisions, the Times reported that he “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” citing both Biden and his aides.
Instead, the report states, Biden “signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” allowing aides to handle the final vetting — and the autopen to handle the signature.
“Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said,” the Times reports.
The autopen process, while not new, has ignited a firestorm of controversy. Critics say its use by a sitting president — especially for sweeping executive actions — skirts transparency and opens the door to abuse.
Leading the charge is President Donald Trump, who in June directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Biden’s autopen use was a cover for deeper issues, per Fox News.
“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 declared in a memo to the Department of Justice.
He went even further, calling the practice part of a “conspiracy” that he described as “one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.”
Trump did not stop at the memo.
Speaking to reporters in June, he blasted the autopen as “inappropriate,” even in less controversial circumstances, per Fox News.
“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important,” he 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,” Trump added.
