Chapman to Newsmax: Trump Can Void Biden's Autopen Orders

President Donald Trump has the authority to void executive actions taken under former President Joe Biden's autopen if the device was used without Biden's approval, federal defense attorney Ronald Chapman II told Newsmax on Sunday.

"First, forging a president's signature is a felony. It's a crime to do so," Chapman said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend."

"So if anybody used the autopen without Joe Biden's express permission, without him deciding that a pardon is OK, it's going to be an invalid signature, and the force and effect of that signature makes it moot," Chapman added.

Trump on Friday declared on Truth Social that any document signed with an autopen, which he claimed represented "approximately 92%" of them, is invalid and "of no further force or effect."

The president also claimed that Biden was often unaware of what he was authorizing and warned that if Biden now says he approved those documents himself, "he will be brought up on charges of perjury."

Chapman, meanwhile, told Newsmax that Trump can reverse executive orders outright but said that actions involving pardons or other presidential authorities would be "void automatically" if the autopen was used without proper authorization.

He added that investigations have shown situations in which Biden lacked "the mental competence to make these actions" and where no record existed showing he approved them.

The discussion then turned to the collapse of the final major criminal case against Trump after prosecutors in Georgia last week dropped the racketeering indictment related to the 2020 election.

Defense attorney and former prosecutor Lindsay Richards said the decision reflects a broader return to applying the law strictly to provable facts.

"You know, it's hard to say. I'm not really sure exactly why this decision was made," Richards said.

"But I'm glad to see kind of across the board with a lot of decisions that were made this week, is that we are just looking at the law and the facts and applying the law to the facts, and whether or not it can be proven," she added.

The charges were dropped after prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who recently took over the case, argued the alleged conduct was a federal, not state, matter.

Richards said the same standard should be applied in other investigations, including those involving former FBI Director James Comey and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

"We are looking at how the law applies to these specific cases, and that is how we proceed," she said.

Richards also discussed on Sunday Trump's authority to restrict the entry of foreign nationals to the U.S., saying he does have that power but that court precedent imposes some guardrails.

Trump said last week he would suspend migration from what he called "third-world countries" after the shootings in Washington, D.C., of National Guard members Andrew Wolfe, who remained in critical condition early Sunday, and Sarah Beckstrom, who died.

"He does have the authority to say that based on, you know, if it's detrimental to the country, that he can limit who comes into the country," Richards said.

She added, though, that "There is case law that says there are limits to this and limits to that power."

Those limits mean restrictions cannot be based on domestic factors such as unemployment or tax concerns, said Richards, expressing reservations about broad bans issued in response to isolated events.

"It is concerning to me if the basis for this is just because of this act of violence that happened over a few days ago that we're saying an entire country is now a threat," she said.

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