{"id":321737,"date":"2025-12-03T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/321737\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T01:58:09","slug":"trump-claims-to-void-all-documents-signed-by-biden-citing-autopen-use-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/321737\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump claims to void all documents signed by Biden, citing autopen use | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> said on Tuesday he is terminating all documents, including pardons, that he said his predecessor Joe Biden<\/a> signed using an autopen \u2013 an unprecedented attempt to rollback a previous president\u2019s actions using what legal thinkers view as a flimsy pretext.<\/p>\n

The autopen is a device used to replicate a person\u2019s signature with precision, typically for high-volume or ceremonial documents. It has been employed by presidents of both major parties to sign letters and proclamations.<\/p>\n

Legal scholars broadly agree the constitution does not require a president to physically sign many documents, including pardons, with their bare hands to make them legally enforceable, according to PolitiFact<\/a>. Federal law also lacks a mechanism for a president to overturn a previous president\u2019s pardon.<\/p>\n

Trump and his supporters have made a variety of unfounded claims that Biden\u2019s use of the device while president invalidated his actions or suggested that he was not fully aware of these actions. It is not known whether Biden used an autopen on pardons.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone receiving \u2018Pardons,\u2019 \u2018Commutations,\u2019 or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

Before leaving office in January, Biden issued several pardons<\/a>, including for family members \u2013 such as his two brothers and his sister \u2013 whom he said he wanted to protect from politically motivated investigations. He also commuted sentences, including for nonviolent drug offenders.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attempt to nullify his predecessor\u2019s actions will not apply to the pardon of Biden\u2019s son Hunter, because he is known to have used a pen to sign it, according to Fox News<\/a>. The outlet did anticipate Trump\u2019s action would affect Dr Anthony Fauci.<\/p>\n

Other key figures pardoned by Biden include retired Gen Mark Milley, members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack against the US Capitol and former Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.<\/p>\n

Trump, known for his provocative style and dislike for his political opponents, has repeatedly targeted Biden\u2019s use of the autopen to sign official documents during his presidency.<\/p>\n

The US president has also questioned Biden\u2019s mental fitness and suggested that aides, not Biden himself, made key decisions. Biden and his former aides have denied these claims, emphasizing the president\u2019s active role in governing.<\/p>\n

The use of mechanical copying devices for handwritten documents date back to the polygraph tool embraced<\/a> by Thomas Jefferson. The justice department under George W Bush contended that the autopen amounts to the same thing as a president\u2019s signature<\/a> for legal purposes \u2013 including signing legislation.<\/p>\n

Attempting to overturn pardons based on the purported use of an autopen rests on even shakier legal ground. The constitution does not even technically require a pardon<\/a> to be written, let alone signed.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump is known for decisively taking action that flies in the face of legal precedent and then letting the courts sort it out. Autopens have not faced serious legal challenge until now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is terminating all documents, including pardons, that he said his predecessor Joe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-321737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}