Biden says he made the decisions on clemency actions granted with autopen
WASHINGTON – Former President Joe Biden said every pardon and commutation he issued in his final months of his term was his decision, calling Republicans "liars" for alleging he was incapacitated when his aides used a signature device to sign off on the documents.
Biden's comments, made in a 10-minute interview with The New York Times, published on July 13, marked his most forceful response to allegations that the Biden White House granted clemencies without the president's authorization. Probes by the Trump White House, Justice Department and Republican adversaries in Congress are investigating the matter.
"I made every decision," Biden said in the interview, justifying the use of the autopen to replicate his signature because of the sheer volume of clemency actions on broad categories of people, including nonviolent drug offenders. "We’re talking about a whole lot of people."
Biden reduced the sentences of nearly 4,000 federal convicts in the final months of his presidency and issued preemptive pardons to potential targets of Trump, such as Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as members of Biden's family. Biden's son, Hunter Biden, was the recipient of the only clemency warrant during this period that Biden signed by hand.
"The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump," Biden said, according to excerpts of the interview published by the Times. "They’re liars," Biden said when asked about Republicans' allegations that his White House abused the autopen.
"They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing. The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else," the former president said. "It's consistent with Trump’s game plan all along."
Biden dropped out of the 2024 election in July of that year after he struggled to piece together coherent sentences during a debate with Trump the month before. In May of this year, Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Trump and fellow Republicans have suggested that Biden's aides used the autopen illegally, arguing the former president was incapable of making clemency decisions himself because of his diminished mental fitness.
"I think it’s the biggest scandal maybe in the last 100 years in this country," Trump said last month, days after ordering the Justice Department to determine who decided Biden's signature should be applied to clemency documents.
"I doubt he knew," Trump said July 14, reacting to Biden's comments that he signed off on the clemency decisions. "I doubt they even spoke to him about it."
According to The New York Times, the Biden White House followed a process to establish that the president verbally signed off on clemency decisions before using the signature device. Stefanie Feldman, who served as White House staff secretary under Biden, managed the use of the autopen. The Times highlighted emails between Biden officials supporting that such a process was in place.
Biden did not individually approve each name included in the broad clemency actions that applied to large classifications of people, Biden aides told the Times. The former president instead signed off on the standards to determine which convicts should have their sentences reduced.
Harrison Fields, deputy press secretary of the Trump White House, said in a statement to Paste BN that Biden "should not be trusted again" when asked to respond to Biden's claims in the interview.
"The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country sooner or later, just as the truth is emerging about the state of Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical health," Fields said.
In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. The next month, he commuted 2,500 criminal sentences for nonviolent drug offenses that he described as "disproportionately long" compared with modern-day sentences.
Also in December 2024, Biden pardoned Hunter Biden for gun and tax felonies and, separately issued a preemptive pardon to shield him from future charges by Trump. On his final day in office, Biden issued similar preemptive pardons for his brother James Biden and other relatives as well as individuals considered potential targets of Trump, including Miley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the COVID-19 response, and members of Congress who oversaw the House investigation into the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Former Biden aides have been summoned to Congress as part of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee's investigation into Biden's mental fitness and his use of the autopen.
Last week, Biden's former White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, invoked his Fifth Amendment right and cited doctor-client confidentiality, declining to answer a series of questions from Republicans on the committee during a closed-door deposition.
Former Biden aide Ashley Williamson appeared on July 11 for a deposition. Neera Tanden, a former domestic policy aide under Biden, was the first to testify last month on the autopen matter. The committee has also issued a subpoena for Anthony Bernal, former assistant to the president and senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden, to appear for a deposition on July 16.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.