The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday urged the Justice Department to investigate executive actions taken by President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, stating that some orders were issued without his explicit approval.
The Committee said it found evidence that several executive actions the former president ostensibly took, which include presidential pardons and commutations, were not personally approved by the 46th president.
The report alleged that Biden’s aides may have used the presidential autopen, a mechanical device that replicates signatures, to sign off on some of these actions “without his knowledge.”
“The Committee deems those actions taken through use of the autopen as void,” the House Oversight report found, adding that it “finds numerous executive actions, particularly clemency actions, taken during the Biden administration were illegitimate.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a written statement:
The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. As Americans saw President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, Biden’s inner circle sought to deceive the public, cover-up his decline, and took unauthorized executive actions with the autopen that are now invalid.
Our report reveals how key aides colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished. Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void. We are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a thorough review of these executive actions and scrutinize key Biden aides who took the Fifth to hide their participation in the cover-up. The D.C. Board of Medicine must also review the actions taken by President Biden’s physician to hide his true condition. [Emphasis added]
Below are just several of the the 91-page report’s findings and recommendations:
- Biden experienced significant mental and physical decline during his presidency, while senior White House staff sought to conceal the president’s decline from the public.
- Comer recommended that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine review the actions taken by Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s personal physician, for any potential wrongdoing in caring for the former president.
- Comer called on the Department of Justice to review all executive actions taken during the Biden presidency and referred key Biden aides, such as Dr. O’Connor, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, for more scrutiny after they took the Fifth Amendment during the investigation.
Comer concluded in his statement, “We have provided Americans with transparency about the Biden Autopen Presidency, and now there must be accountability.”
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