Former President Joe Biden admitted to his staff’s widespread, controversial use of an autopen to sign official documents during his final weeks in office, and attempted to defend his administration’s use of the device in a bombshell New York Times interview released over the weekend.
Biden’s confession comes only after new details emerged on how White House staff used the autopen without clear oversight for high-profile actions in the last months of the former administration, including the signing of pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley.
Congressional investigators and the Department of Justice are now examining whether Biden’s staff’s use of the automatic signature device was related to his mental decline — and if his aides illegally ran the presidency in his name.
The controversy centers on Biden’s decision to grant sweeping pardons to more than 1,500 individuals in the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president. But internal emails reviewed by The New York Times revealed a complex approval process that raises questions about who was actually making presidential decisions.
Biden said he “made every decision” on his own.
“We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people.” Bit Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people.”
Instead, “after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, [Biden only] signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.”
The most troubling details involve the approval process for controversial preemptive pardons.
Internal emails show that Dr. Fauci’s pardon was approved not by Biden directly, but through a “reply all” email from his chief of staff, Jeffrey Zients.
“The emails show that an aide to Mr. Siskel sent a draft summary of Mr. Biden’s decisions at that meeting to an assistant to Mr. Zients, copying Mr. Siskel, at 10:03 p.m. The assistant forwarded it to Mr. Reed and Mr. Zients, asking for their approval, and then sent a final version to Ms. Feldman — copying many meeting participants and aides — at 10:28 p.m.”
Within just three minutes, Zients approved the pardons: “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.” This happened even though Biden had allegedly “kept his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk through such decisions” on January 19th, his final night as president.
The investigation has revealed that former Biden aide Neera Tanden controlled the autopen for nearly two years. During more than five hours of closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Tanden admitted she was authorized to direct autopen signatures but admitted she was left in the dark about who was actually giving final approval.
“Ms. Tanden testified that she had minimal interaction with President Biden, despite wielding tremendous authority. She explained that to obtain approval for autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of the President’s inner circle and had no visibility of what occurred between sending the memo and receiving it back with approval,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer said.
“Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President’s obvious decline.”
The autopen was used on 25 pardon and clemency warrants from December to January 2025, including preemptive pardons for Biden family members and controversial figures. Those pardons included Fauci, Milley, and family members James Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, Sara Jones Biden, and members of the January 6 committee.
Biden defended the preemptive pardons, particularly for his family, as necessary protection against President Donald Trump.
“Everybody knows how vindictive he is. So we knew that they’d do what they’re doing now,” Biden said at the time. “I consciously made all those decisions, among others.”
President Trump has called the pardons illegitimate and ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the autopen use.
“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority. This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” Trump wrote in a memo to Bondi and the Department of Justice.
“The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Trump also criticized autopen use, having had experience in the White House.
“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important. Even if you’re signing ambassadorships … You have somebody that’s devoting four years of their life or more to being an ambassador. I think you really deserve that person deserves to get a real signature… not an autopen signature.”
The investigation has also encountered resistance from Biden’s former White House doctor, Kevin O’Connor, who refused to answer questions during a deposition last week, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“It’s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions,” Comer said.
The House Oversight Committee plans to continue its investigation by interviewing additional high-level staffers including Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini, and Ashley Williams. Republicans are also seeking interviews with some of Biden’s closest confidants, including former chief of staff Ron Klain and former senior advisor Anita Dunn.