The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Oct. 28 published a report titled, rather dramatically, “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House.” The contents of this report are indeed dramatic, however. It details the Biden White House cover-up of the former chief executive’s cognitive decline and, more consequential, describes “unauthorized executive actions” taken by members of Joe Biden’s inner circle, including the use of an autopen to sign some of those actions.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) asserted, “Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void.”
DOJ Eyes Autopen Pardons
Comer has requested that the Department of Justice review Biden's executive actions and “scrutinize key Biden aides who took the Fifth to hide their participation in the cover-up.” Reacting to Comer’s letter to the DOJ, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X:
“My team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons.
“@RepJamesComer’s new information is extremely helpful, and his leadership on this issue is invaluable. We’ll continue working with @GOPoversight to deliver accountability for the American people.”
In addition to the autopen scandal, Comer is recommending that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine review Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s actions during the time he served as Biden’s physician at the White House. O’Connor invoked his Fifth Amendment rights when called before the Oversight Committee as it conducted a three-month investigation into alleged cover-ups. The committee chair wants to know if the doctor “produced false or misleading medical reports to the American people.”
Several former Biden White House staffers took the Fifth to avoid answering questions from the Oversight Committee; others did not. What the investigation uncovered was a chaotic system of authorizing or approving executive actions. In some cases, decisions were made for which there are no records or notes to prove that Biden was even present or personally authorized those decisions.
As Just the News recounts from the Oversight Committee report, senior White House adviser Neera Tanden admitted she met with Biden only once every six or eight weeks. Yet, Tanden’s role was to practically act as Biden’s personal secretary, tasked with recording the president’s actions.
Unauthorized and Invalid
It seems the committee was unable to establish who was calling the shots at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the final months of Biden’s single term. There was no clear “chain of custody” for authorization of executive decisions and actions. That means there are also no records to prove that Biden himself authorized – among other things – a barrage of pardons and other acts of clemency.
