Report alleging Biden officials raised concerns over autopen use resurfaces

Fox Information contributor Marc Thiessen appeared on Fox Information’ “Saturday in America” ​​this weekend with host Kayleigh McEnany, the place the 2 mentioned a September convention. report from Axios alleging that prime Biden administration officers questioned and criticized the previous president’s staff’s dealing with of pardons and use of an autopen within the waning days of his time period within the White Home.

The September 6 report has resurfaced after President Donald Trump introduced Friday that he’ll terminate all paperwork allegedly signed by former President Joe Biden by way of autopen.

Whereas McEnany acknowledged that autopen use is “the commonest factor on the planet” within the White Home and that “each president does it,” she argued that the Biden administration’s use of the device was uncommon, pointing to the Axios report as proof.

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President Donald Trump introduced Friday that he’ll terminate all paperwork reportedly signed by President Joe Biden by way of autopen. (Getty Photographs; Fox Information)

McEnany, who beforehand served as press secretary throughout Trump’s first administration, famous that the report alleged that the workers secretary answerable for managing Biden’s “paper move” repeatedly requested for added particulars to verify the president’s intentions with the autopen.

“It wasn’t regular for me to wonder if Trump authorised of one thing or not,” she added, earlier than asking Thiessen if he had the identical expertise when he was President George W. Bush’s chief speechwriter.

Thiessen identified that there was a ruling from the Workplace of Authorized Counsel that deemed autopen use authorized so long as the president supposed to make use of it, and shared a narrative that exposed the nice lengths Bush went to to keep away from utilizing the device.

‘Bush did not wish to have any doubts about issues. “I bear in mind one time there was a seamless decision to maintain the federal government open, and he was on the APEC summit in Asia, and so they really took an aide and flew the invoice to Asia so he may bodily signal the invoice,” he remembers. “So, you understand, that is how severe it’s [Bush] took this.”

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The previous Bush staffer argued that the issue for Biden is that “everybody now is aware of he was non compos mentis” — that’s, not of sound thoughts — and that there have been “folks making selections for him on a regular basis.”

Fox Information presents Kayleigh McEnany and former Bush affiliate Marc Thiessen on the set of “Saturday in America” ​​on Saturday, November 29, 2025. (Fox Information channel)

“The workers secretary clearly had considerations and consciousness about this and was not sure whether or not Biden was really issuing these orders,” he continued. “And so, you understand, the pardon is an influence of the president himself. And to have a pardon signed by autopen when the folks operating the autopen weren’t even certain that the president had agreed to pardon anybody, that is fairly unhealthy stuff.”

McEnany concluded the section, including that the Division of Justice (DOJ) additionally questioned the clemency course of beneath the Biden administration, which set a presidential document for the biggest variety of pardons and commutations granted to people.

An individual acquainted with the clemency course of advised Axios that after Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Dec. 1, 2024, “there was a mad scramble to search out teams of individuals he may then pardon — and so they largely did not let the Justice Division examine.”

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In September, the newspaper reported that a number of senior Justice Division officers had raised considerations with the White Home counsel’s workplace concerning the course of for pardoning people.

As well as, senior Biden White Home officers have internally pushed again on requests to make use of the autopen, in keeping with Axios, which cited emails it obtained.

It stated Biden White Home Workers Secretary Stef Feldman repeatedly requested for extra info and affirmation of Biden’s intentions with the autopen.

Former President Joe Biden. (Susan Walsh/AP)

‘When did we get [Biden’s] approval of this?” Feldman reportedly wrote in a January 7 electronic mail about utilizing autopen to signal an government order.

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‘I would like an electronic mail from… the unique chain affirmation [Biden] will log out on the particular paperwork as they’re accomplished,” Axios wrote in a Jan. 16 electronic mail about utilizing autopen to translate sentences associated to crack cocaine circumstances.

Fox Information’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.