Trump says Biden’s pardons ‘void’ amid ‘autopen’ controversy

US President Donald Trump says all the pardons the former President Joe Biden issued are “void” since he allegedly used an autopen to sign his acts of clemency in office.

Trump took to his Truth Social account in the early hours of Monday to sow doubt over the legitimacy of Biden’s pardons.

Trump labeled the pardons “void” without evidence.

Autopen is a robotic instrument the presidents of the United States have used for decades to keep up with the volume of routine correspondence they have to sign.

“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden.”

Trump said Biden failed to give consent for pre-emptive pardons issued to the nine House select committee members that investigated the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote.

The nine committee members along with “many others” were granted clemency on Biden’s last full day in office on January 19, after Trump had threatened on the campaign trail to prosecute them.

Trump’s remarks signal that his administration may attempt to upend more than a century of law and practice for presidential pardons in the States.

They also open the possibility that the Justice Department may attempt to prosecute some of Trump’s biggest political adversaries.

“It’s not my decision – that’ll be up to a court – but I would say that they’re null and void, because I’m sure Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place, and somebody was using an auto pen to sign off and to give pardons,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The pardon power has long been considered one of the most absolute powers a president has – and courts have been reluctant to put any limits on how they are granted.

Trump, who himself has granted clemency to more than 1,500 January 6 criminals, warned that the members of the House select committee are no longer shielded by presidential pardons and should expect to be investigated.

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The Republican George W. Bush administration cited that opinion in defending Bush’s use of the autopen.

A 2024 federal appeals court decision said a pardon does not even have to be in writing. “The answer is undoubtedly no,” the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. “The plain language of the Constitution imposes no such limit.”

On the afternoon of January 6, 2021, as Congress was meeting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, a violent and heavily armed mob of supporters of outgoing President Trump stormed the Capitol.

Observers say the Trump-incited mob attack of that January day was an attack not just on the Capitol, but on democracy and the rule of law.

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