President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is examining pardons issued by former President Joe Biden in the final days of his presidency, a move that comes amid an investigation by the House Oversight Committee into the former president’s alleged mental decline and use of autopen, the White House confirmed on June 3.
Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, told staff on June 2 that he had been directed to investigate clemency and pardons granted by Biden, a Democrat, in the waning days of his presidency to family members and death row inmates, according to Reuters.
In an email seen by Reuters, the investigation will focus on whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
An autopen is a device that mechanically replicates a signature.
Presidents, including Trump, have used autopens for decades. There is no law prohibiting the use of autopens for pardons, as previous presidents have done.
On Jan 20, the last day of his presidency, Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses, saying his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”
On the campaign trail in 2023, Trump, who was then facing four criminal indictments, vowed to appoint a special prosecutor if he was re-elected to “go after” President Biden and his family.
The pardons went to Biden’s siblings James Biden, Frank Biden and Valerie Biden Owens as well as their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden. Biden on December 1 pardoned his son Hunter Biden who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
A spokeswoman for Biden refused to comment on the development.
The 82-year old Democrat announced last month that he’d been diagnosed with an “aggressive” Stage 4 prostate cancer. Questions around Biden’s mental health came under public scrutiny during a June presidential debate with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump, raising questions about the Democrats’ well-being, and he ultimately dropped out of the White House race paving the way for then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
On May 22, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (Ky. -R) sent letters to Biden’s physician and former White House aides demanding they appear for a transcribed interview as part of an investigation into Biden’s health and use of autopen.
The investigation’s stated purpose is to “uncover the truth” about Biden’s “mental decline and potential unauthorized use of an autopen for sweeping pardons and other executive actions.”
Letters seeking testimony have been sent to staffers including former senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal, former Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden and former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini.
Martin, the DOJ official, who wrote the letter to staff took over as the director of the Weaponization Working Group, associate deputy attorney general, and pardon attorney after his nomination for U.S. attorney for Washington D.C. was pulled by Trump in early May. Martin failed to get enough Republican support from Capitol Hill due to his championing of the Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked former First lady Jill Biden to speak up about her husband’s alleged mental decline, saying she was “complicit” in a “cover up.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ to investigate Biden family pardons, autopen use
