House Republicans are calling for more scrutiny on the roughly 1,500 commutation orders signed by President Joe Biden toward the end of his term after revelations that an autopen was used for a significant number of them.
‘Americans deserve accountability of their leaders. If an autopen was used to pardon hundreds of people, thousands of people, including the president’s son, who made that decision? Was it Joe Biden? Or was it some staffer that used an autopen?’ Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a brief interview with Fox News Digital.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that autopen signatures were used on clemency orders in the last few months of Biden’s White House tenure.
Biden told the outlet he made ‘every decision,’ and the report details a meticulous process from Biden making his decision to that decision being recorded by aides and passed through a chain of email communication – suggesting the then-president had final signoff.
But the report notes, ‘The Times has not seen the full extent of the emails, so it is impossible to capture the totality of information they contain or what else they might show about Mr. Biden’s involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.’
Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., suggested pardon decisions carried out in the late hours of the day should be looked at in particular.
‘I think we need to highly scrutinize the use of autopen signatures that were initiated at 10.45 p.m., well beyond the president’s normal day of cognitive activity, need to be brought into question,’ Messmer said.
The report noted one instance where the final word on a particular set of clemency orders was sent just after 10:30 p.m.
The Times had reported in July 2024, before he dropped out of the presidential race, that Biden said he would stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. due to the need for sleep.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, argued lawmakers need more information on who was in control of those signatures for public trust.
‘What people want is accountability. They want to know that what was done in the name of our president who was elected, that he actually bears responsibility for that,’ Gill said.
Another lawmaker suggested courts should even look at nullification.
‘Maybe some of the pardons and things like that can be rolled back,’ Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., said. ‘We’ll leave it to the courts to figure that out.’
Rep. Andrew Cylde, R-Ga., went a step further: ‘That has to be corrected. It has to be investigated. And those people, really, in my opinion, should be prosecuted for stepping outside the bounds of the Constitution.’
The House Oversight Committee, led by Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is already investigating the Biden administration’s use of autopen and whether former top White House aides concealed evidence of the then-president’s mental decline.
Ex-White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain is the latest person expected to appear before House investigators, with a voluntary transcribed interview scheduled for Thursday morning.
Democratic allies of Biden have blasted the probe as a political spectacle rather than an honest fact-finding mission.
But all the Republican lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital argued to at least some extent that Americans want accountability, though some suggested it would be beneficial to focus efforts on the future.
‘I have to balance my thoughts on this. I think that, you know, it’s good to know what happened, to keep it from happening…but on the other hand, I really want to be focused on the future,’ said Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont. ‘But I will tell you, the speculation – although I obviously don’t know 100% what’s true or not – I think the speculation is very probable, just seeing who Biden was at the end of his tenure and knowing that that didn’t happen overnight.’
Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, vice chair of the House GOP Conference, told Fox News Digital, ‘As far as the previous administration, what’s done is done, but it’s also good to highlight to the American people, okay, you were in some cases lied to.’
Notably, autopen is a standard and legal practice that’s been used by officials in many past cases, including by President Donald Trump. House investigators are looking into whether Biden really made the final sign-off himself on key decisions, however.
The office of former president Joe Biden was contacted for comment.