House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said Friday that the panel has opened an investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue his eleventh-hour pardons, adding he thinks they know the staffer who did it, the Washington Examiner reported.
Comer made the comments in a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association’s policy conference in Washington.
“So our newest investigation at Oversight Committee is we’re investigating the autopen, and I think we’ve identified the staffer” who operated it, Comer said, according to the Examiner. “If what we think is going to play out on the autopen [investigation], it’s going to create a strong case on the pardons.”
The autopen was used for Biden's preemptive pardons for his family members in the waning hours of his presidency. Also getting pardons before Biden left the White House were members of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan Jan. 6 select committee; Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
President Donald Trump declared the pardons issued by Biden "void, vacant, and of no further force or effect" because they were signed by a device.
According to a March investigation by the Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, the use of an autopen was used to produce Biden’s signature on "every document we could find,” including Biden's pardon of six criminals on Dec. 30, 2022, "while Joe Biden was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands."
The pardons all say "signed in the city of Washington," according to the Oversight Project.
Of concern for Republicans and the Oversight Project is whether Biden was aware of what he was signing or whether he actually signed them at all.
"Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency," the Oversight Project said in a post to X on March 6.
The New York Post reported on March 14 that a key aide to Biden may have exceeded their authority by “liberally” using the autopen to sign official documents. The Post cited two former White House sources.
“The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what ‘the boss’ wanted,” the Post reported. One WH source told the Post that “To me, [the staffer] basically was the president.”
And now Comer says he believes the committee knows the identity of that person.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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