House Republicans call Biden’s pardons ‘illegitimate’
The Republican-controlled committee has pointed to the alleged misuse of the autopen by the former president’s staff, who are accused of concealing his cognitive decline
A report from the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform alleges that Joe Biden’s “inner circle” actively worked to hide the former US president’s “cognitive decline” while he was in office. The Republican-led committee further scrutinized certain pardons bearing his signature, claiming that his staff had unfettered access to his autopen device.
In a document titled ‘The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House’, released on Tuesday, the committee, led by Rep. James Comer, concluded that “Biden’s inner circle of loyalists [had attempted] to mislead the nation” about the president’s “diminishing mental and physical capabilities.” Lawmakers contended that these actions exhibited all the signs of a “cover-up.”
“As President Biden declined, his staff abused the autopen and a lax chain-of-command policy to effect executive actions that lack any documentation of whether they were in fact authorized,” the committee asserted.
The committee specifically highlighted the “clemency actions taken in the final days of the Biden presidency” which involved violent convicted criminals.
Consequently, “the Committee deems void all executive actions signed by the autopen without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent,” the report stated.
Lawmakers urged the District of Columbia Board of Medicine to investigate the professional conduct of Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who pleaded his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned about being instructed to misrepresent the former president’s health.
Additionally, the committee advised the Department of Justice to launch investigations into several other high-ranking officials within the Biden administration.
In response to the report, Biden’s spokesperson rejected its conclusions, maintaining that “there was no conspiracy, no cover-up and no wrongdoing.”
Last May, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor’s senior staff of committing “treason at the highest level” by reportedly enacting unauthorized policies through the use of Biden’s autopen – a tool designed to reproduce a person’s signature.