President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that all pardons, commutations and other official documents signed with an autopen during Joe Biden’s presidency are “terminated,” issuing a sweeping statement that challenges a long-standing presidential practice.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that “any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts” signed by order of what he called the “unauthorized ‘AUTOPEN’” under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. are “null, void, and of no further force or effect.” He further claimed that anyone who received pardons, commutations, or other legal documents signed in this way should consider those documents “fully and completely terminated” and without “any Legal effect.”
Why It Matters
An autopen is a device that precisely reproduces a person’s signature and has been used by presidents of both parties for decades, particularly for high-volume or ceremonial documents such as letters, proclamations and routine endorsements.
Trump and his allies have pushed unsupported allegations that Biden’s reliance on the device somehow invalidated his actions or suggested the president was not fully engaged with the decisions being made. It has not been publicly confirmed whether Biden used an autopen to sign any pardons specifically.
Before leaving office in January, Biden issued a series of pardons — including for some family members he said he wished to protect from politically motivated investigations — and commuted the sentences of several nonviolent drug offenders. Trump, who has frequently attacked political opponents, has repeatedly pointed to Biden’s use of the autopen for official paperwork as a reason to question the legitimacy of those actions.
What To Know
Trump has long questioned Biden’s mental sharpness and has suggested that aides, rather than Biden himself, were effectively running the administration. Biden and his former aides have pushed back on those claims, insisting that he was actively involved in governing.
On Friday, Trump said on Truth Social that he was invalidating all executive orders he alleges were signed by Biden using an autopen, claiming that roughly 92 percent of Biden’s orders were executed this way.
Legal experts, however, have rejected the idea that the method of signing undermines those actions. Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan under the Barack Obama administration, told Newsweek that autopen signatures are recognized as valid, and that the device used to sign a document does not affect the legitimacy of an executive order.
What People Are Saying
McQuade told Newsweek on Friday that any president can revoke an executive order issued by a predecessor, regardless of whether it was signed by hand or via autopen, and that “the auto-pen issue is irrelevant. Auto-pen signatures are valid.”
Some Republicans have framed the situation much differently. Representative James Comer, a Kentucky Republican and chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote on X that “the Biden Autopen Presidency is one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” accusing Biden’s inner circle of deceiving the public, hiding his condition and taking “unauthorized executive actions using the autopen—actions that are now invalid.”
Representative Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, likewise wrote on X on Tuesday: “FOR YEARS, unelected Deep State bureaucrats ran our country with an autopen while President Biden sat on the sidelines in cognitive decline. What happened was unforgivable. INVALIDATE THEM ALL.”
What Happens Next
It is not yet clear how Trump’s directive will be interpreted within the federal government or whether agencies will attempt to change how they treat Biden-era orders, pardons, or commutations that may have involved the autopen.
Constitutional and legal scholars note that any attempt to rescind previously granted pardons or commutations would almost certainly be met with swift legal challenges. The Constitution explicitly grants the president broad clemency powers, and prior administrations have accepted autopen use as a valid means of executing official signatures.
Those who received pardons or commutations under Biden may seek reassurance that their relief remains intact, while the Department of Justice and the White House counsel’s office are expected to review Trump’s proclamation. Ultimately, courts may have to decide whether Trump’s declaration carries any binding legal effect or is primarily a political statement.
