Former President Joe Biden has admitted that he did not personally sign the many pardons granted to criminals as he was leaving office, Breitbart reported. Instead, Biden gave his staff the criteria for issuing them and authorized them to use an autopen.
Biden made this admission to The New York Times, which confirmed what many had feared. At least three of the four large batches of pardons signed in the last days of his administration involved whole categories of criminals whom he did not individually vet and sign off on.
"BOMBSHELL: The NYT quietly confirms Biden aides used the autopen to issue executive actions WITHOUT a clear sign he even approved them. This is EXACTLY why we're investigating," the House Oversight Committee shared on X, formerly Twitter. "We must know WHO was calling the shots in the West Wing. The 5th will not help them cover up the BIGGEST political scandal in history."
🚨 BOMBSHELL: The NYT quietly confirms Biden aides used the autopen to issue executive actions WITHOUT a clear sign he even approved them.
This is EXACTLY why we're investigating. We must know WHO was calling the shots in the West Wing.
The 5th will not help them cover up the… pic.twitter.com/lWkDz5ufMR
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 14, 2025
The use of the autopen is particularly controversial, given that Biden delegated his responsibility to his underlings. The Times notes that "the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list" of prisoners to be pardoned.
"Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said," the Times reported. Use of the autopen was delegated to then-White House staff secretary Stefanie Feldman.
She was reportedly carrying out Biden's wishes, as made known in meetings with his top advisers, including White House Counsel Ed Siskel and Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients. They would, in turn, tell their assistants, who would compile lists and send them to Feldman.
The email chain provided Feldman with cover to make the pardons, which sometimes came on the spur of the moment. On January 19, which was Biden's last full day in office, Zients gave the okay for a batch just minutes after receiving one of those emails.
"…Mr. Zients hit ‘reply all’ and wrote, ‘I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,'" the Times said of one of the emails. Although Biden ostensibly made these decisions, the involvement of staffers has opened the door to challenges to these pardons.
As Fox News reported, this uncertainty has raised questions about the pardon of Anthony Fauci. The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical adviser to Biden received a blanket pardon that may have been autopen-signed.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) believes this is grounds for reopening his probe into Fauci's role in the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul has accused him of lying to Congress about his involvement in the gain-of-function research funding that may have contributed to the creation of the virus.
"Today I will reissue my criminal referral of Anthony Fauci to Trump DOJ," Paul said Monday on X. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has requested that Attorney General Pam Bondi launch a probe into the use of an autopen, in addition to those already underway in the House and Senate.
With so many reports about Biden's mental decline finally coming out, the use of an autopen becomes particularly relevant. "I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, I guarantee you," Trump said.
Many suspected that Biden was experiencing cognitive difficulties for years. Now, some are finally admitting that these autopen signatures need to be scrutinized and perhaps discarded if Biden wasn't fully aware and in control of the decisions for whatever reason.
