The White House has expressed support for a Justice Department investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of clemency powers, following allegations that many pardons and commutations were signed using an autopen.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized the significance of the inquiry, which was announced by President Donald Trump’s pardon attorney, Ed Martin, stating that “the American people deserve answers.”
“The president is making a good point when he discusses the usage of the autopen,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported. “Who was running the country for the past four years?”
Leavitt pushed back against criticism that the investigation was backward-looking, pointing instead to what Trump is highlighting as key achievements of his administration, including progress on border security and the economy.
“It’s still, nevertheless, is a very important issue, and it was a huge issue that sent the president back to this White House,” she said. “Americans saw with their own eyes a mentally incompetent president, and they want answers for that, and the president believes they should have them.”
Martin, whom President Trump had nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia before Senate Republicans withdrew support last month due to his past defense of January 6 defendants, told Justice Department staff on Monday that he has been instructed to investigate clemency actions taken by former President Joe Biden.
The probe includes Biden’s reported pardons of family members during his final days in office and his commutation of death sentences for 37 federal inmates to life imprisonment.
Martin told aides in an email that the investigation would try to reveal whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means,” according to Reuters.
Martin indicated he is examining Biden’s whereabouts at the time the pardons were signed, raising questions about why an autopen was used if the former president was physically present in Washington, D.C.
The issue has resurfaced amid renewed scrutiny of Biden’s age and mental fitness, particularly following the release of “Original Sin,” a book by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, which details how aides frequently shielded and managed the former president behind the scenes.
Republicans in both the House and Senate have launched investigations into Biden’s use of the autopen and whether he was truly making key decisions during his time in office.
While modern presidents have occasionally used an autopen for ceremonial purposes, such as signing holiday cards, Trump, Martin, and other Republicans argue that Biden’s team may have relied on the device in more consequential situations due to the then-president’s declining mental capacity, the Examiner reported.
Last month, Martin dropped a couple of names of who may have been the “gatekeepers” for the use of the autopen.
Martin confirmed that the investigation into the autopen’s use has been active for some time, that he has contacted members of the Biden family, that several individuals of interest have retained legal counsel, and that a whistleblower has already come forward with serious allegations.
“I had a whistleblower in my office 10 day ago — senior, senior Democrat — saying, ‘Look, it was these three people that controlled access, and they were making money off of it,’” Martin told journalist Mark Halperin on the “2WAY Tonight” show.
“I don’t know if I believe it yet, but the point is, I think, we have to get to the bottom of it for the American people and to protect the process, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The pardon attorney identified three individuals as key gatekeepers: Ron Klain, who served as President Biden’s White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023 and returned last year to assist with debate preparations; former senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn; and Robert Bauer, former personal attorney to President Barack Obama.