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Biden admits he didn’t approve each individual pardon
Posted on: July 14, 2025 at 18:21:05 CT
Spanky KU
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-admits-he-didn-t-approve-each-individual-pardon-chief-of-staff-zients-signed-off-on-last-day-clemencies/ar-AA1IA8VB?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=01c6743cc4e84143fd39726688ca1176&ei=16
Former President Joe Biden has acknowledged in a stunning new interview that he didn’t agree to the name of every person who received one of the 46th president’s sweeping pardons — with emails indicating that then-White House chief of staff Jeff Zients approved the use of the notorious White House autopen.
The 46th president insisted in a phone interview with the New York Times last week that “I made every decision” about clemencies issued during his term before admitting that he had his staff replicate his signature because “we’re talking about a lot of people.”
Biden’s team used an autopen on 25 warrants for pardons and commutations in December and January of last year, but two of those warrants granted clemency to thousands of people.
On Dec. 12, Biden commuted roughly 1,500 sentences and outright pardoned 39 more. Three days before he left office, the president commuted the sentence of nearly 2,500 federal inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses.
According to the Times, Biden approved what standards would be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a pardon or commutation, while his underlings sorted out the specifics.
In cases where changes were made to the list of inmates, staffers waited until a final version of the clemency roster was produced, then ran it through the autopen rather than ask Biden to keep signing successive versions.
President Trump has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the documents Biden signed via autopen — which has been used since at least the Truman administration to reproduce the president’s signature.
“I understand why Trump would think that,” the former president told the Times, “because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision.”
Emails from a meeting held on the final night of Biden’s presidency, Jan. 19, indicate that the president decided to issue pre-emptive pardons to members of his family — including controversial first brother James Biden — with mere hours to go in his term.
After messages summarizing the meeting circulated among top Biden advisers, Zients wrote in an email at 10:31 p.m.: “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”
The autopen was managed by former staff secretary Stefanie Feldman, who put documents through the device. Feldman would receive “blurbs” or written accounts confirming that Biden supposedly gave the order to use the autopen, per the outlet.
But most of the time, the assistants who drafted those “blurbs” weren’t actually in the room to hear Biden give the orders, according to the New York Times.
Still, Biden was adamant that he approved every high-profile pardon with aides, specifically noting Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We know how vindictive Trump is, and I’ve no doubt they would have gone after Mark for no good reason,” Biden said.
“The general, you know. So they may read off his name — what’d I want? I told them I wanted to make sure he had a pardon because I knew exactly what Trump would do — without any merit, I might add.”
Biden also accused Republicans of lying about speculation that his subordinates abused the technology to try to hide his mental state.
“They’re liars. They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly. They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing,” he griped.
“The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else. And this is a — I think that’s what this is about.”
Trump, for his part, recently claimed that Biden’s aides had committed “crimes” by using the autopen to “do anything they wanted.”
“That’s a crime to do that to the country,” Trump said on The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast hosted by Miranda Devine.
“Well, number one, I really believe it was a crime because I don’t think he knew he was doing it. I think that people took over the autopen. They got things signed that shouldn’t have been signed.”
“It was people that surrounded that desk that operated the autopen. They surrounded the beautiful Resolute Desk,” Trump continued.
“They are criminals, and what they did to our country should never be forgotten. And hopefully, as criminals, they’ll pay a price for what they do.”
The Justice Department launched an investigation into the autopen controversy last month to probe whether any White House aides “abused the power of Presidential signatures.”
The White House has also confirmed that Ed Martin, head of an anti-weaponization working group, is probing whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans — led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) — have started a separate inquiry into allegations of a White House cover-up involving aides who hid the president’s diminishing mental acuity from the public.
Trump’s White House only allows two top aides — staff secretary Will Scharf and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — to use the autopen “for all matters,” according to an internal memo previously reported by The Post.
Former President Joe Biden has acknowledged in a stunning new interview that he didn’t agree to the name of every person who received one of the 46th president’s sweeping pardons — with emails indicating that then-White House chief of staff Jeff Zients approved the use of the notorious White House autopen.
The 46th president insisted in a phone interview with the New York Times last week that “I made every decision” about clemencies issued during his term before admitting that he had his staff replicate his signature because “we’re talking about a lot of people.”
Biden’s team used an autopen on 25 warrants for pardons and commutations in December and January of last year, but two of those warrants granted clemency to thousands of people.
On Dec. 12, Biden commuted roughly 1,500 sentences and outright pardoned 39 more. Three days before he left office, the president commuted the sentence of nearly 2,500 federal inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses.
According to the Times, Biden approved what standards would be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a pardon or commutation, while his underlings sorted out the specifics.
In cases where changes were made to the list of inmates, staffers waited until a final version of the clemency roster was produced, then ran it through the autopen rather than ask Biden to keep signing successive versions.
President Trump has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the documents Biden signed via autopen — which has been used since at least the Truman administration to reproduce the president’s signature.
“I understand why Trump would think that,” the former president told the Times, “because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision.”
Emails from a meeting held on the final night of Biden’s presidency, Jan. 19, indicate that the president decided to issue pre-emptive pardons to members of his family — including controversial first brother James Biden — with mere hours to go in his term.
After messages summarizing the meeting circulated among top Biden advisers, Zients wrote in an email at 10:31 p.m.: “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”
The autopen was managed by former staff secretary Stefanie Feldman, who put documents through the device. Feldman would receive “blurbs” or written accounts confirming that Biden supposedly gave the order to use the autopen, per the outlet.
But most of the time, the assistants who drafted those “blurbs” weren’t actually in the room to hear Biden give the orders, according to the New York Times.
Still, Biden was adamant that he approved every high-profile pardon with aides, specifically noting Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We know how vindictive Trump is, and I’ve no doubt they would have gone after Mark for no good reason,” Biden said.
“The general, you know. So they may read off his name — what’d I want? I told them I wanted to make sure he had a pardon because I knew exactly what Trump would do — without any merit, I might add.”
Biden also accused Republicans of lying about speculation that his subordinates abused the technology to try to hide his mental state.
“They’re liars. They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly. They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing,” he griped.
“The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else. And this is a — I think that’s what this is about.”
Trump, for his part, recently claimed that Biden’s aides had committed “crimes” by using the autopen to “do anything they wanted.”
“That’s a crime to do that to the country,” Trump said on The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast hosted by Miranda Devine.
“Well, number one, I really believe it was a crime because I don’t think he knew he was doing it. I think that people took over the autopen. They got things signed that shouldn’t have been signed.”
“It was people that surrounded that desk that operated the autopen. They surrounded the beautiful Resolute Desk,” Trump continued.
“They are criminals, and what they did to our country should never be forgotten. And hopefully, as criminals, they’ll pay a price for what they do.”
The Justice Department launched an investigation into the autopen controversy last month to probe whether any White House aides “abused the power of Presidential signatures.”
The White House has also confirmed that Ed Martin, head of an anti-weaponization working group, is probing whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans — led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) — have started a separate inquiry into allegations of a White House cover-up involving aides who hid the president’s diminishing mental acuity from the public.
Trump’s White House only allows two top aides — staff secretary Will Scharf and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — to use the autopen “for all matters,” according to an internal memo previously reported by The Post.
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Biden admits he didn’t approve each individual pardon - Spanky KU - 7/14 18:21:05
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