President Trump announced Friday that he has “terminated” all executive orders and other documents signed by autopen under President Biden and threatened to charge his predecessor with perjury.
In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said the autopenned documents were signed illegally by White House staff without the direct approval of Mr. Biden.
If the former president claims he was involved in the process, he will be charged with perjury, Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump made the announcement two days after a pair of National Guard members were shot two blocks from the White House. One of the victims died on Thanksgiving and a second victim is in critical condition at a D.C. hospital. The suspect arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, as part of the evacuation flights Mr. Biden hastily arranged to try to get Afghans who helped America’s war effort out of danger as the Taliban retook control of the country.
Mr. Trump said the man later had his status extended under “legislation signed by President Biden,” though it’s unclear what that legislation was.
In a separate Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen.”
It’s also not clear whether his autopen declaration is in response to the shooting. Mr. Trump has been railing against Mr. Biden’s frequent use of the autopen for several months.
“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Mr. Trump said Friday. “The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him. I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The autopen was used to sign executive actions and other memoranda on behalf of Mr. Biden. It was used more frequently in the later part of his presidency, and it signed off on warrants that provided clemency to thousands of criminals, among them felons who committed murder and other serious offenses. Most of those granted clemency have already been released, but some remain in prison on shortened sentences.
Legal scholars say the president has no authority to invalidate a president’s actions that are signed by autopen.
Former Biden White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded to Mr. Trump by calling him “the most criminal president in American history,” and he said the president “does not have the legal power to do this.”
A monthslong House investigation concluded in October that Mr. Biden “was losing command of himself” while in office and was not personally involved in many of the pardons, commutations and other executive actions signed by an autopen.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked the Justice Department to “address the legal consequences” of investigators’ conclusion, which “deems void” executive actions and clemency warrants signed by the autopen during the Biden administration that do not include documentation proving the president made the decision.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, praised Mr. Trump’s announcement.
“The House Oversight Committee recently exposed how the Biden Autopen Presidency is one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. As Americans witnessed President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, Biden’s inner circle sought to deceive the public, conceal his condition, and take unauthorized executive actions using the autopen—actions that are now invalid,” Mr. Comer said. “The House Oversight Committee delivered crucial transparency, and now President Trump and his administration are delivering accountability.”
Mr. Biden issued more pardons and commutations than any other president in history, and most were signed with a mechanical signature even though he was physically present in the White House. His chief of staff, Jeff Zients, oversaw the autopen signatures.
Mr. Biden issued clemency to more than 4,200 people.
Mr. Biden, 83, said he voiced permission for all the clemency warrants, though not each case individually. He said congressional Republicans and Mr. Trump were “liars” for claiming he was disengaged with his presidential duties.
“I made every decision,” Mr. Biden told The New York Times in a phone interview this summer. He said the autopen was used to sign the clemency warrants because there were so many. “We’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Most of the commutations were included in three autopen-signed warrants. Mr. Biden personally signed the document pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted on felony gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax evasion and tax fraud charges in September 2024. Mr. Biden used an ink pen to sign off on his son’s “full and unconditional pardon,” which spans an entire decade of possible wrongdoing.
