Trump Admin Investigates Biden's Autopen Pardons

President Trump's administration has opened an investigation into whether Joe Biden 'was competent' when he used an autopen to issue lame duck pardons to family members and death row inmates.

Ed Martin - Trump's pardon attorney - said the Justice Department has been directed to investigate clemency granted by Biden in the waning days of his presidency, including the December pardon of his troubled son Hunter.

Martin's probe was revealed in a Monday email to staffers that was obtained by Reuters.

The attorney said the investigation involves whether Biden 'was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.'

An autopen is a device used to automatically affix a signature to a document.

The email stated that Martin's investigation is focused on preemptive pardons Biden issued to several members of his family and clemency that spared 37 federal inmates from the death penalty, converting their sentences to life in prison.

Just before he relinquished the presidency to Trump on January 20, Biden pardoned five members of his family, saying he wanted to protect them from future politically motivated investigations.

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.

Hunter faced up to 25 years in prison for the offences, although was expected to receive a much lighter punishment as his first offense.

He had a scheduled sentencing date for the charges, but the pardon rendered that court date moot.

Martin's email did not specify which of the Biden family members pardons were being investigated.

Martin told reporters last month that he viewed the presidential pardon power as 'plenary,' meaning it is absolute.

'If you use the autopen for pardon power, I don't think that that's necessarily a problem,' Martin said during a May 13 press conference, adding that he still felt the Biden pardons warranted scrutiny.

The investigation appears designed to use the Justice Department to amplify questions about Biden's health and mental acuity, a conversation that has intensified in recent weeks following his cancer diagnosis and a new book revealing Democratic concerns last year about Biden's condition.

Questions have since arisen about whether Biden actually signed many of the orders under his administration amid his noticeable cognitive decline after it was revealed they were signed with an autopen.

The mechanical device signs documents rather than an individual. It has been used by presidents and lawmakers for decades.

The Oversight Project in March 'gathered every document we could find with Biden's signature over the course of his presidency'.

'All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year.'

It went on to share two examples from documents that it claimed showed the use of the autopen including a document from August 2022 as well as one from December 2024 with what appear to be identical signatures.

The group also posted an image of Biden's signature as a comparison from when he announced he was dropping out of the race. That image shows a slight variation from the other shared documents.

A separate examination of 25 Trump signatures on orders on the Federal Register's website from his first and second administrations also found the signatures were all the same.

The Oversight Project now says investigators must determine 'who controlled the autopen and what checks there were in place' to determine whether Biden actually made any of the orders.

Still, it questioned if that was something that could be determined in the 'correct legal process.'

Biden, who is 82, last year dropped his reelection bid amid questions about his mental acuity after a disastrous presidential debate performance. Biden was the oldest person to serve as U.S. president, and Trump is the second oldest.

The former president's closest aides have dismissed those concerns, saying Biden was fully capable of making important decisions.