A new investigation has been launched that could produce shocking new revelations about former President Joe Biden and his questionable use of the autopen. A growing number of individuals have decried the use of autopen signatures, claiming it is further evidence that the previous administration was aware of Biden’s cognitive decline and took steps to cover it up.
Critics claim the president was not capable of making final decisions on policies that would become law, thus someone whom the American people did not elect was leading the government.
A senior official within President Donald Trump’s Justice Department informed staff on Monday that he has received orders to launch an investigation into the clemency given to Biden in the final days of his presidency to both members of his family and inmates on death row.
DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin penned an email obtained by Reuters that said the new investigation will look into whether the former president “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
“An autopen is a device used to automatically affix a signature to a document. Trump and his supporters have made a variety of unfounded claims that Biden’s use of the device while president invalidated his actions or suggested that he was not fully aware of these actions. It is not known whether Biden used autopen on pardons,” Reuters explained.
In the email, Martin said the central focus of the probe will be the preemptive pardons Biden handed out to several members of his family, along with the clemency given to 37 federal inmates that spared them from the death penalty by converting their sentences to life in prison.
A total of five members of Biden’s family were issued pardons just before Trump took office in January 2025. The pardons were preemptive in nature, designed to protect these individuals from future “politically motivated” investigations.
The recipients of these pardons include three of the former president’s siblings: James Biden, Frank Biden, and Valerie Biden Owens, along with their spouses. On December 1, 2024, Biden pardoned his deeply troubled son, Hunter, who had pleaded guilty to violating U.S. tax laws and was already convicted of charges related to firearms.
Biden had once promised the American people he would not get involved in his son’s legal troubles and allow justice to be served. He said he would not use his pardon powers to spare his son the consequences of his actions. This turned out not to be true.
Martin’s email didn’t reveal which pardons of Biden’s family members were being investigated. It also didn’t provide any information on who gave the order for the investigation.
The investigation seeks to find out if Biden really intended to issue the pardons or if someone else took advantage of his cognitive decline to do so.
The Constitution provides the executive branch with the power of executive clemency and issuing pardons to remove federal criminal convictions and to commute or modify sentences.
