During Friday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, predicted that his committee’s work on Biden-era autopen use would result in the court backing President Donald Trump’s cancellation of former President Joe Biden’s executive orders signed by the autopen.
Earlier in the day, Trump issued his own executive order canceling those that Biden did not personally sign.
“Set aside the signatures on public laws,” guest host Jason Chaffetz said. “If you look at the universe, 88% of the time during a four-year period, evidently the president, it appears, used an autopen. And you’re right, it’s those unauthorized because publicly, the president had said, President Biden, that it was for people that, you know, on pardons and whatnot. This is for people who had committed nonviolent crimes. But there were several people who committed violent crimes, murders in fact, that were actually released or had their death sentences diminished. That’s what’s so stunning. It was a total complete different than what the president was saying publicly. And it begs the question, did he truly authorize it?”
Comer replied, “Right. We never found any evidence other than the very last person we brought in, Jeff Zients, who I’m sure he communicated with everyone else that we brought in. He knew the questions we were asking. No one could say, ‘Yes, Joe Biden told me to sign this document with my name. Yes, I participated in a meeting with Joe Biden where we discussed this executive order or we discussed this person’s pardon.’ No one, his inner circle we brought in all of his inner circle, some of whom pled the Fifth Amendment wouldn’t even answer the questions but those who did other than Jeff Zients, the very last person, no one could say it. Now, we didn’t bring Joe Biden in. Many believe she was the one that was making a lot of decisions. It doesn’t matter. What matters, Jason, is that Joe Biden wasn’t a part of the process.”
“And the Constitution is clear,” he added. “No one has the authority to issue a pardon other than the president of the United States. The vice president doesn’t have that authority. The chief of staff does not have the authority. And the first lady does not have the authority. So, I applaud what President Trump did today. I think this will end up in court and I think our investigative work, the report that the House Oversight Committee published will serve as the basis of evidence that will help us win this in court and help President Trump to sustain this executive order.”
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