US President Donald Trump has said that he is cancelling every document that former President Joe Biden signed using an autopen. This includes pardons, commutations, executive orders and any other official papers. He made the announcement on Tuesday in a post on Truth Social. This comes just days after Trump repeated a similar claim, saying that “about 92%” of Biden’s documents were signed using an autopen and therefore “have no force or effect.”
Trump says all Biden autopen documents are “Terminated”
Trump, on Tuesday, wrote that anyone who received a pardon or any other legal document signed with the autopen should know that the document “has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no legal effect.”
“Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Before leaving office, Biden issued broad pardons to protect his family members, including his son Hunter and his brother James, against possible future charges. Trump has repeatedly vowed to target what he calls “the entire Biden crime family” and his allies.
What is an autopen?
An autopen is a machine that copies a person’s signature using real ink. It is normally used when someone has to sign thousands of letters or routine documents. Presidents from both political parties have used autopens for more than a century. Thomas Jefferson is believed to have used an early version of the machine after it was patented in 1803. Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and even Donald Trump himself have all used autopens.
A 2005 Justice Department memo under President Bush confirmed that an autopen signature is legal. The memo said a person can sign a document by instructing someone, or something, to place the signature for them.
Why Trump is targeting Biden over autopen
Trump has previously mocked Biden for using an autopen. At one point, he even replaced a White House portrait of Biden with a picture of the device. He claimed that Biden’s aides were making decisions around him, writing: “The radical left lunatics circling Biden… took the presidency away from him.”
He went on to say he is cancelling “all executive orders” and any document that was not “directly signed” by Biden himself. He also warned that if Biden says he approved the autopen use, he should face perjury charges.
Trump has made similar allegations before. In June, he demanded an investigation. On October 28, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee recommended that the Justice Department look into the issue.
Biden, on the other hand, has strongly rejected those claims. In an interview with The New York Times in July, he said Republicans are “liars” for suggesting he did not know what documents he approved.