Former President Joe Biden on Wednesday night rejected President Donald Trump’s announcement of an investigation into his administration allegedly conspiring to cover up his “cognitive decline” through the use of the autopen.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” Biden wrote in a statement to several outlets.
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” he added.
Trump’s order, which directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington to conduct the investigation, would examine the legitimacy of his predecessor’s use of the autopen, a mechanical device that replicates an authentic signature, on pardons and other important documents. It goes beyond Trump previously tasking the Department of Justice’s pardon attorney, Ed Martin, to review Biden’s last-minute pardons as he exited office.
Biden had preemptively pardoned family members and their spouses before ending his term, in an attempt to protect them from political prosecution as Trump promised retribution. He also pardoned members of the House committee who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
In March, Trump claimed that Biden’s preemptive pardons were “void” because he allegedly signed them with an autopen. In May, he claimed that his predecessor’s staffers used the autopen to exploit the president.
And in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump said Biden’s alleged autopen use is the “BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!” — aside from the “RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020,” which Trump never conceded to Biden, who defeated him in 2020.
The Department of Justice has recognized the use of the autopen in the White House as a method of signing legislation and issuing pardons for decades, including under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Trump often suggests that his political opponents should be investigated, and he has directed the Justice Department to look into people who have angered him over the years. They include Chris Krebs, a former cybersecurity official who disputed Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, and Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official who wrote an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president in 2018.
Meanwhile, House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, a Republican, requested transcribed interviews with five Biden aides, alleging they had participated in a “cover-up” that amounted to “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history.”
The aides include former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, and former counsel to the president Steve Ricchetti.
“These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House,” Comer said in a statement. “They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Rachel Cohen
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