President Joe Biden was warned by a Department of Justice that some autopen pardons were legally flawed.
These pardons, given in the waning ours of his presidency, also went against Biden’s objective by releasing violent offenders who killed children and police officers, per the Washington Times.
That Department of Justice official was Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer, who was critical of the “highly problematic” language contained in a warrant, subsequently signed by the autopen, that pardoned hundreds of criminals. He warned the Biden administration in an email dated Jan. 18, two days before Biden left office.
Weinsheimer said the wording of the pardoned offenses was too vague.
He said that wording lack could also result in commutations “in circumstances, including for crimes of violence, that was not intended.”
Weinsheimer added the DOJ could not vet the possible people granted clemency.
Some of those pardoned were granted leniency despite “voluminous objections” from the victims’ families, he said.
The DOJ gave the email to Oversight Project, a legal watchdog group, after President Donald Trump wanted Biden’s use of autopen to be investigated.
Biden, 82, used autopen to grant clemency to thousands of criminals. Biden gave more pardons than any other president.
One example of someone who was granted clemency is Russell McIntosh.
McIntosh shot and killed a woman and her 2-year-old after the woman said she was going to expose his drug business.
Others now free due to Biden’s clemency include violent gang leaders and people convicted of crimes involving killings, kidnapping and rape.
The Justice Department’s fight to understand the pardons “animated the fact that President Biden was not running the show in his White House and was not the person making decisions and exercising core presidential powers that only belong to him,” Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell said.
