The Biden family may have thought they had gotten away with it—but not so fast.
The Biden White House’s routine use of an autopen to sign executive orders and acts of clemency raised serious questions about who was actually calling the shots—and whether Joe Biden was even conscious of what he was approving.
Ed Martin, the DOJ’s pardon attorney, is now investigating those pardons, including clemency handed out to Biden's own family members. Martin informed staff in an internal email, which Reuters obtained, that the probe centers on whether Biden was even mentally competent when the pardons were issued, and whether others exploited his cognitive decline to rubber-stamp decisions using an autopen or other shady workarounds.
In other words, we’re not just looking at potential abuse of power—they are actively investigating the possibility that Biden wasn’t the one making the decisions at all.
The email stated that Martin's investigation is focused on preemptive pardons Biden issued to several members of his family and clemency that spared 37 federal inmates from the death penalty, converting their sentences to life in prison.
Just before he relinquished the presidency to Trump on January 20, Biden pardoned five members of his family, saying he wanted to protect them from future politically motivated investigations. The pardons went to Biden's siblings James Biden, Frank Biden and Valerie Biden Owens as well as their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden. Biden on December 1 pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
Martin's email did not specify which pardons of Biden family members were being investigated. It also did not make clear who directed Martin to launch the investigation.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Biden spokesperson did not immediately provide comment.
The presidential autopen has been around since the 1950s, but its use has always been legally dubious. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to use it to sign a bill into law—while vacationing in Hawaii, no less—citing a 30-page memo from the Bush-era legal team claiming it was permissible so long as the president gave prior authorization.
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But Biden’s use of the autopen takes things to an entirely different level. This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about accountability. Unlike Obama, Biden’s situation is shrouded in uncertainty. No one seems to know who was actually operating the device or whether Biden was even aware it was being used in his name.
In March, the Oversight Project released a damning memo exposing 32 separate instances where the autopen was used to green-light clemency warrants—pardons and commutations that affected thousands of people. Among them were preemptive pardons for members of the January 6 Committee, which only adds to the scandal. The implications are staggering: Were these official acts of mercy actually authorized by the president, or were unelected staffers wielding the power of the presidency behind his back? If it’s the latter, we’re no longer talking about questionable judgment—we’re talking about a constitutional crisis.
"They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter, and to be accepted, and to be something that's used correctly. So I do think we're going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did," Martin said at the time.
Let’s do this.
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