US President Trump claims Biden’s pardons void due to autopen signatures – JURIST
US President Donald J. Trump claimed in a Truth social media post Monday that former President Joseph Biden’s pardons are void because they were made via autopen.
Trump stated:
Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.
Individuals that Biden pardoned before leaving office include former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and lawmakers from the House select committee that investigated the January 6th, 2021 Capitol riot.
“This is how authoritarianism consolidates power,” 50501 Movement spokesperson Kat Duesterhaus said. “Trump isn’t even hiding it anymore — he’s saying out loud that he will punish his political enemies and strip away their legal protections. This is dictator behavior, plain and simple.”
Article I, Section 7 of the US Constitution states that a president must sign a bill that they approve after it is presented to them. In 2005, the Department of Justice interpreted Article 1, Section 7 to mean that a president may sign “by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”
The autopen, first patented in 1803, is a machine that digitally duplicates signatures. Various presidents have used the machine, such as Thomas Jefferson, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and George B. Bush. Former President Barack Obama was the first president to use the autopen to sign a bill—an extension of the Patriot Act—in 2011.
