House Republicans released a 91-page report on the Biden administration’s use of the autopen, claiming it is evidence that former President Joe Biden wasn’t making decisions while in office.
The Oct. 28 report included evidence Republicans gathered during their investigation that supported the idea that the Biden administration covered up the former president’s mental decline and that some executive actions should thus be rendered invalid.
The investigation included interviews with 14 former White House officials and aides, and almost 47 hours of depositions and transcribed interviews.
In the report, Republicans assert that the Biden White House decision-approval process was “ripe for exploitation.”
According to testimony, multiple Biden administration witnesses testified about the process through which the president’s decisions were communicated to the staff.
One example came from Neera Tanden, who served as both staff secretary and senior advisor to President Joe Biden and was responsible for managing official documents.
Tanden was also in charge of routing documents to the Oval Office for the president to review and sign. However, she testified that she only saw Biden about once every six to eight weeks.
“Tanden’s limited interaction with President Biden stands in stark contrast to the current Staff Secretary Will Scharf’s interactions with President Trump,” the report stated.
Scharf meets with President Donald Trump frequently and is known to personally discuss documents that require his signature.
Republicans pointed out the contrast, noting that it’s the job of the staff secretary’s office to collect and present materials to the president, but Tanden’s testimony seemed to suggest that her involvement was minimal—even saying she only handled “maybe two” pardons while in her position.
Physical Use of the Autopen
The committee report states that the staff overseeing the autopen, responsible for obtaining the president’s approval, could not speak to who had access to the autopen’s operation.
Tanden stated that while she oversaw the use of the autopen for executive actions, and one of her staffers oversaw use for letters and correspondence, she did not physically operate the pen, nor did she personally witness the use of the autopen until late in her tenure.
The committee also discovered there was a document outlining specific guidelines for how the autopen should be used, dated in February 2021. This was drafted by Biden’s first staff secretary, Jess Hertz, and “proposed [an] update of prior Autopen guidelines.”
Notably, that memo specifically recommends that a list of documents NOT be signed with the autopen, but rather have a hand signature. Included in that list were congressional bills, veto messages, State of the Union addresses, Cabinet-level commissions of appointments, and pardon letters.
From Democrats
Senior Biden officials stated repeatedly during testimony that the former president approved each and every executive action that was authorized during his administration.
Oversight Committee Democrats also released a report on the autopen issue on the same day, saying, “the Oversight Majority has failed to produce any evidence to support their allegations against President Biden.”
The lawmakers asserted that the autopen was “employed consistent with the law and past practice.”
The minority party accused Republicans of promoting a “sinister conspiracy” centered on the former president’s mental fitness for office after the previous Congress’s impeachment inquiry “collapsed.”
“Republicans proved to be nothing more than a feeble attempt to attack the legitimacy of President Biden’s policies—a pretext to invalidate executive actions by President Biden, including valid pardons issued pursuant to his constitutional authority,” the Democrats’ report stated.
The former president has rejected claims that he wasn’t in charge of his administration, saying in June, “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.”
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” he said. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), however, said the report shows how aides “colluded to mislead the public” and the measures that were allegedly taken to keep up the appearance of Biden’s presidential authority and his functioning capacity.
“Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void,” Comer said.
“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” he said. “As Americans saw President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, Biden’s inner circle sought to deceive the public, cover-up his decline, and took unauthorized executive actions with the autopen that are now invalid.”
Other Officials’ Response
Comer said that his committee called on the Department of Justice to conduct a “thorough review” of the executive actions signed via autopen and to “scrutinize key Biden aides who took the Fifth to hide their participation in the cover-up.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted about the report on X after it was released, saying, “My team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons.”
“[Comer’s] new information is extremely helpful, and his leadership on this issue is invaluable. We’ll continue working with [the Oversight Committee] to deliver accountability for the American people,” the post read.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) referenced the report on the day it was released, saying, “Every executive action signed by the autopen without written authorization from Biden should be voided. … The actions of President Biden simply were not all his own actions, and there are major implications to that, including all the pardons that he signed.”
The Epoch Times did not immediately receive a response from the office of the former president.
