President Donald Trump accused former President Joe Biden on Sunday of using an autopen to sign important documents — including pardons on including some for lawmakers who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Trump claimed that Biden’s more than 8,000 pardons were void and that Biden did not know what documents he was signing through the automated device, calling into question Biden’s mental sharpness while in office and whether he personally approved all official actions.
What is an autopen, and how does it work?
An autopen is a device that physically holds a pen and is programmed to replicate a person’s signature. It is not a stamp or a digitized print of someone’s signature, and various autopen machines have the capability to hold different types of pens, ranging from ballpoint to permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines available for purchase.
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Modern machines allow someone to save a signature on a smart card or USB flash drive, and then transfer it to the machine. To activate the device, one inserts the pen and then either presses a button or uses a foot pedal to create the signature.
Other autopen machines have the capacity to write full-length letters for mass, handwritten mail campaigns, where one can select various fonts and input data to determine spacing, size, angle, among other things.
Use of an autopen is common for lawmakers and other figures like celebrities, who may be required to sign a large swath of documents at one time. For example, former President Barack Obama signed off on an aide using an autopen machine in 2011 to reauthorize the Patriot Act, while he was abroad in France and unable to physically sign it himself.
That episode marked the first known incident of a president signing legislation with an autopen, even though other presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson were photographed with the machine and reportedly used it to sign correspondence after the machine’s invention during World War II.
A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Tuesday that Trump uses his hand signature on every legally operational or binding document, in keeping with his administration’s official policy during both terms. However, Trump admitted he uses one for letters.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday that although he employs an autopen for correspondence, it is “disgraceful” to use one when signing documents such as pardons.
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However, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel determined in 2005 that the president is authorized to use an autopen to sign bills into law. More recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in February that said the absence of “a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur.”
“The constitutional text is thus silent as to any particular form the President’s clemency act must take to be effective,” the circuit court said in its opinion.
Despite Trump’s concerns over the validity of Biden’s pardons due to the alleged use of an autopen, constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that the odds of successfully legally challenging them in court are “vanishingly low.”
“Presidents are allowed to use the autopen and courts will not presume a dead-hand conspiracy,” Turley said.
A spokesperson for Biden did not provide comment on the record to Fox News Digital.
Trump’s attacks on Biden over the use of an autopen come after the Oversight Project with conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation released a report March 6 claiming that it conducted an analysis of Biden documents, and found that a majority of documents signed during his administration used an autopen.
“This apparent use raises concerns about: whether President Biden personally authorized each official act; whether or which unelected staff controlled the autopen device; and whether they acted with his approval,” the Oversight Project said in a report released Monday.
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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