Topline
President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate former President Joe Biden’s actions during his term, alleging his staff covered up the former president’s “cognitive decline” and questioning his use of an “autopen” to sign certain orders.
President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that his predecessor’s aides used an autopen to … More
Key Facts
According to the White House, Trump has directed his administration to investigate whether Biden officials “conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state” and “ unconstitutionally exercise” Presidential authority.
Trump’s memo to the attorney general is primarily focused on Biden’s use of an “autopen” to sign executive orders—a device that can replicate a person’s signature and has been used in the White House for decades, including during Trump’s time in office.
Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Biden’s aides sometimes used the autopen without his knowledge and his latest order seeks to investigate this and “the validity of the resulting Presidential policy decisions.”
The White House statement also questions the validity of the pardons and commutations issued by Biden—especially his commutation of the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row—echoing another Trump claim.
In the statement, Trump says: “The real question – who ran the autopen…Because the things that were signed were signed illegally, in my opinion.”
What Else Did Trump Say?
In his memo to the attorney general, Trump wrote: “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,” reiterating his autopen claims once again without evidence. In a post on his Truth Social platform earlier on Wednesday, Trump reiterated his unsubstantiated claim about the autopen, saying it was “THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY” after the 2020 presidential election result, which he falsely claimed was “RIGGED.”
What Has Biden Said About Trump’s Order?
In a statement shared with multiple outlets on Wednesday night, Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency…I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false. This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.”
What Do We Know About The Use Of Autopens?
An autopen is a mechanical device that is designed to replicate a person’s signature on documents. According to a 2013 Atlantic article, a precursor of the autopen, called the polygraph, was extensively used by Thomas Jefferson—the third U.S. president. The polygraph could only make copies while a person was writing the original, but an autopen can keep a record of an original signature in its onboard memory. Harry Truman was the first president to use an autopen, according to the Atlantic, and it has been used to sign official documents for several decades since then. In 2005, the DOJ issued a memo saying the use of an autopen to affix a president’s signature on a bill or other official documents was valid as long as he approved of it.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/06/05/trump-orders-investigation-into-bidens-actions-what-to-know-about-autopen-claims/