Former President Donald Trump on Thursday renewed his criticism of President Joe Biden's use of an autopen to sign a range of orders, including pardons, arguing Biden never gave the orders and that thousands of pardons signed under his administration were void as a result. Trump told reporters during a trip to the United Kingdom that "It was illegally used. He never gave the orders." He added, "He never told them what to do. And I guess the only one he signed, or one of the few he signed, was the pardon for his son."
A White House official did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment immediately. A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Trump uses a hand signature for every legally operational or binding document. Trump has acknowledged using an autopen for letters, but White House aides say clemency decisions were personally reviewed by Biden.
New York Times reported in July that Biden's chief of staff Jeff Zients gave final approval for multiple high-profile preemptive pardons on Biden's final days in office, including those for Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley, though Biden told the Times he personally made the clemency decisions.
Biden granted a total of 4,245 acts of clemency during his administration, 96% of which were granted during the final months in office between October 2024 and January 2025, according to Pew Research Center.
Trump's comments come as Zients is slated to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday for its probe into Biden's mental acuity and whether the president was fully cognizant of clemency orders and other executive actions signed using the autopen.
An autopen is a machine that holds a pen and follows programming to imitate a signature. It can hold various types of pens, from a ballpoint to a permanent marker.