President Donald Trump asserted Monday that former President Joe Biden was unaware of what his autopen signature was being used for after Biden admitted he did not individually review many of the sweeping pardons doled out at the end of his term.
Though Biden did not individually sign off on the names in the batches of categorical pardons, a New York Times report claims “he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” and his team ran a final list of convicts through the autopen:
Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.
Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.
When asked about the report on Monday, Trump said the autopen saga is a scandal of epic proportions.
“Look, the autopen, I think, is maybe one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years. This is a tremendous scandal,” Trump said.
Trump added that he knows those “on the other side of the Resolute Desk,” in a reference to Biden’s staff. “They’re no good. They’re sick people. And I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it,” Trump said.
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