(The Hill) – President Trump in a social media post said he believes former President Biden’s last-minute pardons are “void” because he signed them with an autopen.
“The ‘pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump said early Monday on Truth Social.
Just before the inauguration in January, Biden pardoned several of Trump’s political enemies preemptively, including the lawmakers who sat on the House panel that investigated rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Biden’s family, Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley.
There was much discussion about whether Biden would use the executive action to protect people that could be prosecuted by the incoming Trump administration.
Trump argued Monday in his post that Biden did not sign the papers and “did not know anything about them!”
While courts have largely left the pardoning power up to the president, Trump noted that those on the House committee should expect to be investigated “at the highest level.”
Aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump told reporters he thinks Biden’s pardons are null due to the autopen.
“It’s not my decision, that’ll be up to a court,” he said.
His remarks come after a report from an arm of the Heritage Foundation argued Biden used the autopen to sign the pardons before leaving office.
While a president has the authority to pardon individuals, according to the U.S. Constitution, no subsequent president can rescind them for any reason.
It’s not confirmed by the Biden administration whether the former president did use an autopen, but CNN legal analyst Elie Honig noted early Monday that autopens have been used as a signing device by presidents for decades.
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