During a recent New York Times interview, former President Joe Biden once again defended his use of the autopen to sign off on official presidential pardons — but the NYT acknowledges that Biden “did not individually approve” each name.
During his final weeks in office, as his health and cognitive abilities were rapidly declining, Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals.
Speaking to the Times, Biden said that he “made every decision” on his own.
“We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people,” Biden said.
However, the Times reported that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” according to the former president and his aides.
“Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, [Biden] signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” the Times’s report read.
Instead of repeatedly asking the president to resign updated versions of official documents, his staff used an autopen to put Biden’s signature on the final version.
Last month, President Trump ordered a DOJ investigation into Biden’s autopen use.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Did Joe know what he was signing off on during his final days?
It appears not.
CNN’s in-house Republican, Scott Jennings, shared the story, simply saying, “Woo boy.”
Woo boy: "Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed." https://t.co/fdYUL0wYMO
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 14, 2025
More over at Fox News:
Biden defends controversial autopen use for mass clemency decisions in NYT interview: 'A whole lot of people' https://t.co/DuuSEH7Hxn
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 14, 2025
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