President Trump directed his administration on Wednesday to investigate whether former President Joe Biden’s aides “conspired to deceive the public” about his mental decline and used an autopen to sign documents without his knowledge.
“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 in a memo to his counsel and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” the president continued. “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.”
Trump argued that “there are serious doubts as to the decision making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness” of the thousands of presidential documents signed throughout his four years in office, which included pardons for his family members and acts of clemency sparing dozens of convicted murderers the death penalty.
“The Counsel to the President, in consultation with the Attorney General and the head of any other relevant executive department or agency (agency), shall investigate, to the extent permitted by law, whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President,” Trump ordered.
The president’s memo noted that the federal investigation will look into possible efforts “to purposefully shield the public from information regarding Biden’s mental and physical health” and “the circumstances surrounding Biden’s supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office,” including the use of autopen.
“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” Trump wrote.
The probe will also search for any agreements between Biden’s aides to “cooperatively and falsely deem recorded videos of the President’s cognitive inability as fake” and “require false, public statements elevating the President’s capabilities.”
Biden released a statement to several media outlets after Trump’s order denying that his staff was making decisions in the West Wing.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” the former president said.
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” he added.
The memo comes after Department of Justice pardon attorney Ed Martin instructed staff in an email Monday to probe the extent to which Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
The investigation will focus on pardons for five first family members – including the former president’s son, Hunter, and siblings James, Frank and Valerie and their spouses – as well as the sentence commutations issued in December 2024 for 37 of the 40 men currently on federal death row.
Last month, Martin noted that presidential pardon power is absolute, but in cases where an autopen was used, additional scrutiny is warranted.
Meanwhile, in Congress, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is leading a separate probe into Biden’s competency and use of autopen, and Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are planning to hold a hearing on the former president’s mental decline next month.
