House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said on Wednesday that his committee’s investigation into former President Joe Biden’s administration’s autopen usage so far has not yielded a shred of evidence that Biden was in control of what was signed.
The New York Times published a report on Sunday documenting Biden’s use of an autopen, finding that when the former president granted a wide array of clemency and pardons toward the end of his term, he approved the guidelines for them, but did not personally approve each person. Comer said on “American Agenda” that the two former Biden aides his committee has interviewed did not provide evidence that Biden was aware of who operated the autopen or what documents they put his signature on.
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“There’s no evidence that’s emerged thus far after two complete transcribed interviews and then two attempted depositions where the witnesses pled the fifth on every single question,” Comer said. “At this point, there’s no evidence that would suggest Joe Biden had any idea who was using the autopen and what they were signing his name on. That’s a very serious constitutional crisis here that puts all those pardons that he signed and all the executive orders that he signed in legal jeopardy. So this is a very serious investigation.”
Biden’s physician Kevin O’Connor pleaded the Fifth at his deposition on July 9. Former first lady Jill Biden’s former chief of staff Anthony Bernal pleaded the Fifth on Wednesday.
“We’re giving people in the Biden administration like Anthony Bernal the opportunity to tell their side of the story, to tell that Joe Biden was whipsmart, he knew exactly what was going on and told people, ‘Yes, use my signature on this document and that document.’ And thus far, that hasn’t happened,” Comer added.
“Plus, you add in the New York Times interview … where he admitted he didn’t know every single person who was pardoning and didn’t know that much about them. He said he authorized his staff to do that,” he said. “That’s not how the pardon process works. So he’s incriminated himself. And I think that’s where we are in the investigation. We’re going to bring in everybody that was in the White House and give them an opportunity to talk and then go from there.”
Biden told the NYT that he had directed his staff to use the autopen on clemency warrants because he issued them to “a whole lot of people,” but claimed he approved all of the pardons and commutations at the end of his term.
The former president also addressed the pardons he granted to his family and prominent people like Gen. Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci. He told the NYT that he talked about every “high-profile pardon” personally with his aides.
“I consciously made all those decisions,” Biden said.
The sole pardon the former president signed using his hand from December 2024 to January 2025 was for his son, Hunter. He granted 25 pardons and commutations using the autopen during that identical time frame.
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