Autopen Scandal Deepens. Could Pardons Be Invalidated?
14th July 2025
The so-called autopen scandal appears to be getting worse for former President Joe Biden as more information comes to light.
Biden, some of his former staffers, and a handful of thought leaders in the Democratic Party have attempted to triage the message about the inner workings of the previous presidential administration. But tangible evidence is mounting that it was effectively run like a kind of politburo.
The New York Times released an interesting report Sunday afternoon that included a short interview with Biden saying he made decisions on clemency that were carried out with an autopen. In the final month of his presidency, Biden pardoned a number of high-profile people and granted clemency to an additional 1,500.
High-profile examples included his son, Hunter Biden, members of the Jan. 6 committee, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley.
“Everybody knows how vindictive [President Donald Trump] is, so we knew that they’d do what they’re doing now,” Biden said in theTimes interview. “I consciously made all those decisions.”
Some of the people on the 1,500 person list were violent criminals including virtually everyone on death row.
Biden insisted that he was “conscious” of all his administration’s decisions (a contention not helped by his rambling responses).