House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is launching a fresh investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen machine to sign official documents.
Comer said that White House staffers made key decisions while Biden experienced cognitive decline — and may have signed legal documents, bills, and executive orders on his behalf.
House Republicans want to know if the signatures were fradulant or illegal.
“We think we’ve identified who the staffers are,” Comer told Fox News Friday. “We’re going to bring everyone that we believe was involved… for a transcribed interview. If they want, then they will receive a subpoena.”
The Kentucky Republican is focusing on Biden’s final months in office, and said that senior staffers controlled decision-making and document signing rather than the president himself. Comer specifically mentioned First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden as potential targets of the investigation.
“Don’t rule out Hunter Biden,” Comer said. “He spent a lot of time in the Oval Office in the last three months.”
The investigation centers on claims that Biden administration officials used automated signature machines to authorize executive actions without the president’s direct involvement.
Comer said it is potentially “one of the greatest scandals of our generation.”
“Key decisions made in the final days of the Biden presidency, including using autopens to issue blanket pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be fully examined,” Comer warned.
President Donald Trump has previously claimed that Biden’s preemptive pardons, including those for members of the House committee that investigated his role in the January 6 attack, are invalid because they were signed using autopen technology rather than signed by Biden personally.
Comer had previously issued subpoenas for former White House aides Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, and Ashley Williams, and requested an interview with Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. The White House declined to make these officials available for interviews while Biden was still in office.
“We want to bring the doctor in,” Comer explained on The Alex Marlow Show Wednesday. “We want to know who was telling [him] to issue a report that says Joe Biden was a picture of health. I mean, obviously that wasn’t factual. Are you that incompetent as a doctor? Or were you being threatened by Joe Biden to say that, or by the Democratic National Committee to say [that], or by George Soros to say that?”
The chairman explained that his investigation was limited while Biden served as president but expects better cooperation now that Trump controls the executive branch. Comer said he plans to work closely with Attorney General Pam Bondi for potential prosecutions.
“We want to work with the Trump administration because all I can do is investigate. I can’t prosecute,” Comer said. “If I could prosecute, there would be Biden family members in prison now. There would be Deep State actors in prison. But Pam Bondi can prosecute. The Department of Justice can prosecute.”
Rather than relying on traditional committee hearings with time limits, Comer plans to use his subpoena power to conduct lengthy depositions and interviews to get the facts. He said that regular hearings are too often derailed by Democratic committee members.
“We we want to bring people in for depositions and interviews and have substantive questions and not be confined by five minute clocks and [Democrat Reps.] Jasmine Crockett and Jared Moskowitz screaming,” he said.
The investigation will target both high-profile figures and lesser-known White House staff members. Comer promised to investigate everyone involved in the alleged scheme, including “people that were operating the autopen.”
Comer claimed that senior Biden staffers engaged in “running interference” during the president’s alleged cognitive decline, and alleged that key decisions and signatures were made by aides rather than Biden himself. He accused the Biden administration handlers, Democratic leaders, and the media of working together to “gaslight” the public about the former president’s declining mental capacity.
With Trump now in office and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress,Republican investigative efforts will face far fewer obstacles than during the previous administration.