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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Former president Joe Biden has hit back at Republican claims that the use of an autopen showed he was not capable of making clemency decisions as a list shows the high-profile pardons he granted using the device, according to The New York Times.
The newspaper said it had seen correspondence about the pardons and commutations in Biden's final weeks of office in which the former president's staff used an autopen.
Biden told the NYT in an interview that he had granted the pardons even if he did not personally sign the official warrants of those decisions.
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When contacted for comment, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Newsweek in a statement: "The same president who lied through his teeth to the American people for four years about everything from his health to the state of the economy should not be trusted again."
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Why It Matters
The Department of Justice and the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee have opened investigations into Biden's use of an autopen for pardon and clemency warrants near the end of his term and whether his officials covered up his mental decline.
President Donald Trump has said these pardons and commutations were illegitimate and showed how Biden's staff ran the presidency in his name using the device
But Biden's interview hits back at the accusations as he insisted he had consciously made pardons and that the use of the device was legitimate given the volume of signatures.
What To Know
Last month, Trump ordered an investigation into Biden's actions as showing cognitive decline as he cited his predecessor's appointment of federal judges and acts of clemency.
At the time, Biden said he made the decisions himself about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations and "any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false."
But Trump and his allies have seized on the autopen as showing Biden's staff had conspired to run the presidency in his name.
The NYT has reviewed several dozen among thousands of emails, which discussed the major grants of clemency recorded by an autopen near the end of Biden's term, examining four tranches of commutations.
The paper said the small proportion of messages it saw meant it could not conclude everything about Biden's involvement in the pardon and clemency decisions.
But the paper said the autopen was used, in all, on 25 pardon and clemency warrants from last December to January 2025— some of which included large batches of names because they all fell into the same broad policy category
One batch stopped those in home confinement since the COVID pandemic from returning to prison, another reduced sentences of non-violent drug offenders while a third commuted death sentences to life without parole.
Also facing scrutiny is use of the autopen for Biden to grant pre-emptive pardons to family members and conservative targets who could face action from Trump when he returned to the White House.
These included preemptive pardons for:
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- Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, and Biden's chief medical advisor from 2021 to 2022. His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn calls for his prosecution from some critics.
- General Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He had criticized Trump, calling him a "wannabe dictator," "fascist to the core" and also reportedly reassured Chinese officials there would be no threat to China. which prompted Trump to post on Truth Social that he was "treasonous."
- James Biden, Joe Biden's brother, had been investigated by House Republicans as part of an impeachment inquiry who had urged the Justice Department to charge him for making allegedly false statements to lawmakers.
- Valerie Biden Owens, Joe Biden's sister, faced no public charges but was pardoned to shield her from politically motivated attacks.
- Sara Jones Biden, Joe Biden's sister-in-law, James Biden's wife. She had at times participated in her husband's business dealings, Politico reported, and transactions in her name came under scrutiny during Republican-led congressional investigations of the Bidens.
- January 6 committee, the lawmakers investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, concluding that the GOP president engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn 2020 presidential election results and failed to act to stop his supporters.
Biden told the newspaper an autopen was used to sign the warrants, "because there were a lot of them" adding that this was legal and the issue was being used by the GOP as a distraction.
Biden also said the Trump administration had "lied so consistently about almost everything they're doing" adding that the accusations were part of GOP ploy "to change the focus."
Last week, Biden's White House doctor, Kevin O'Connor, declined to answer questions during a deposition with the Oversight panel last week, citing physician-patient privilege and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
But Committee Chair James Comer criticized O'Conner over his refusal to answer questions saying there had been a conspiracy to cover up Biden's cognitive decline.
Fields, principal deputy press secretary to the White House referred to O'Connor pleading the Fifth Amendment as a sign that "the Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics."
"The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country sooner or later, just as the truth is emerging about the state of Joe Biden's cognitive and physical health," Fields said.
What People Are Saying
Former President Joe Biden told The New York Times the autopen: "is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump... I made every decision."
"Everybody knows how vindictive [Trump] is, so we knew that they'd do what they're doing now."
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields, told Newsweek in a statement: "The Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics."
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer: "It's clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden's cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions."
What Happens Next
The NYT has reported that Biden and his team are stepping up efforts to counter the attacks by Trump and his congressional allies over accusations that there was cover up of the former president's mental decline.
Update 07/14/25, 11:42 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a White House statement.
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