President Trump claims pardons made by Biden in the last minutes of his presidency have been “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT” since the former commander-in-chief used “Autopen.”
THE NEW YORK POST | Published March 17, 2025
President Trump said early Monday that he was voiding all the last-minute pardons former President Joe Biden made using autopen.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Monday morning.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!” he said of the oldest-ever president and concerns at his age-related mental abilities at 82.
President Trump claims pardons made by Biden in the last minutes of his presidency have been “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT” since the former commander-in-chief used “Autopen.”Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump
The 47th president also alleged that the pardons were not “approved” by his predecessor.
Trump also warned that members of the former Jan. 6 House select committee who Biden issued pardons would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
“Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,” Trump wrote Monday.
“The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”
The 47th president also alleged that the pardons were not “approved” by his predecessor.X / @OversightPR
Trump was outraged after Biden issued the preemptive pardons, blasting the move as “disgraceful” and saying, “Many are guilty of MAJOR CRIMES!”
It’s unclear whether any court will take steps to void Biden’s pardons over the autopen claims.
Last week, Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey suggested that dozens of executive orders signed by former President Biden were authorized with identical autopen signatures, and “if true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void.”
“I am demanding the DOJ investigate whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval,” Bailey said.
“The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden,” he wrote. “He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.”
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SOURCE: www.nypost.com
RELATED: Trump challenges Biden’s pardons, claiming autopen use renders them ‘void’
Donald Trump’s comments open the possibility that he may try to pursue some of his biggest political adversaries
SOUTH CHINA MORNIING POST | Published March 17, 2025
US President Donald Trump has said his predecessor’s eleventh-hour pardons of members of Congress who investigated the January 6 insurrection were “void, vacant and of no further force or effect”, signalling his administration may attempt to upend more than a century of law and practice for presidential pardons.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform just after midnight Monday Washington time, Trump said the pardons were void because Joe Biden signed them with an autopen.
His comments follow similar arguments from the conservative Heritage Foundation that Biden used an autopen based on seemingly identical signatures found on several Biden documents. Trump in his Truth Social post did not present any evidence.
The pardon power has long been considered one of the most absolute powers a president has – and courts have been reluctant to put any limits on how they’re granted.
While Trump acknowledged the courts should ultimately decide on the validity of the pardons, his comments open the possibility that the Justice Department may attempt to prosecute some of the president’s biggest political adversaries.
They include former congresswoman Liz Cheney, retired general Mark Milley and infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci, all pardoned on the last day of Biden’s presidency after Trump had threatened on the campaign trail to prosecute them.
“It’s not my decision – that’ll be up to a court – but I would say that they’re null and void, because I’m sure Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place, and somebody was using an auto pen to sign off and to give pardons,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night.
A 2024 federal appeals court decision said a pardon doesn’t even have to be in writing. “The answer is undoubtedly no,” the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. “The plain language of the Constitution imposes no such limit.”
A 1929 Justice Department opinion held that “neither the Constitution nor statute prescribed the method by which executive clemency shall be exercised or evidenced. It is wholly for the president to decide”.
The George W. Bush administration cited that opinion in defending Bush’s use of the autopen, a robotic instrument that presidents have used for decades to keep up with the volumes of routine correspondence they have to sign.
But its use has been controversial because it casts into question whether the president personally approved the action.
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SOURCE: www.scmp.com
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