New information has reignited the debate over whether former President Joe Biden was fully aware of the documents he signed during his presidency. A report in the New York Post alleges that an unnamed Biden aide used an autopen to sign official documents without clear confirmation that Biden had approved the actions.
According to two unnamed former White House aides, the staffer in question would claim to be acting on Biden’s behalf, but no one dared to verify if this was true.
“I feared no one as much as I feared that [staffer]. To me, [the staffer] basically was the president,” one former aide said. “No one ever questioned [the staffer]. Period.”
The aide added that while “everyone” suspected the staffer was overstepping their authority, no one openly challenged it. “I think [the aide] was using the autopen as standard and past protocol,” the source said. “There is no clarity on who actually approved what — POTUS or [the aide].”
On January 19, Biden’s final day in office, all seven pardons he reportedly “signed” were executed using an autopen. This has raised questions about whether Biden was fully aware of these actions, especially given concerns about his cognitive health.
A second aide echoed these concerns, stating that other staffers suspected the aide of issuing orders in Biden’s name without clear evidence that Biden had approved them. However, some former aides have defended the staffer, claiming they did not believe their authority was abused.
The report coincides with an investigation by the Oversight Project, which is questioning six signatures on pardons Biden issued on December 30, 2024. The group highlighted that all six pardons bore identical autopen signatures, despite Biden being on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands at the time.
“Who is behind this autopen on 12/30/2022 that pardoned six criminals (with the exact same autopen signature) while Joe Biden was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands? Note they all say they are ‘Signed in the City of Washington,’” the Oversight Project posted on X.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has called for the Department of Justice to investigate whether Biden’s cognitive decline allowed staff to push through policies and pardons without his knowledge.
“I am demanding the DOJ investigate whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval,” Bailey wrote on X. “If true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void.”
Bailey attached a letter to Michael Horowitz, the DOJ’s inspector general, in which he expressed “profound reasons to suspect that Biden’s staff and political allies exploited his mental decline to issue purported presidential orders without his knowing approval.”
He argued that if staffers were behind the orders, it would explain why the Biden administration’s policies were “aggressively much farther to the left than any previous President.” Bailey concluded that if Biden’s staffers exploited his mental decline, the orders would be “null and void.”
The allegations have sparked widespread debate about transparency and accountability in the final days of Biden’s presidency, with critics demanding answers about the extent of his involvement in key decisions.
