NEWYou can now listen to articles!
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., insisted Tuesday that “every pardon” signed by former President Joe Biden should be “null and void,” telling ‘ Laura Ingraham that the process was riddled with inconsistencies and lacked proof of the former president’s personal involvement.
“Every person who we deposed had a different story on what the proper process was that they followed in using the autopen to sign a legal document,” Comer said on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“Their stories were inconsistent and then, when you throw in the emails from the Garland Department of Justice expressing concern to these very staffers about the excessive use of the autopen and asking point-blank questions, what was their process, then the entire story is changed. So the inconsistencies abound,” he added.
Comer’s comments came after the House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority released a 100-page report detailing findings from its months-long probe into Biden’s White House, focusing on whether his inner circle covered up signs of mental decline in the former president and whether that alleged cover-up extended to executive actions signed via autopen without Biden’s full awareness.
COMER UNLEASHES ON BIDEN, DEMANDS DOJ PROBE OF AUTOPEN USE IN SCATHING NEW REPORT
Then-President Joe Biden (left) at a rally in Union Station on April 9, 2024, in Washington, D.C.; House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., (right) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday, June 5, 2023. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care Can’t Wait Action (left); AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib (right))
The report argued that White House aides hid the former president’s “condition and fitness for office” and detailed a “haphazard documentation process” for pardons issued by Biden.
The committee suggested the Department of Justice should “immediately conduct a review of all executive actions” performed by Biden during his term in office, focusing primarily on acts of clemency.
“One thing that is consistent is the fact that no one saw Joe Biden, no one who authorized the autopen or actually physically manually pressed the power button on autopen ever heard directly from Joe Biden, and, furthermore, there are no notes, there’s no chain of custody that would show that Joe Biden was involved in any meetings where they discussed the pardon process,” Comer said Tuesday.
JOHNSON ARGUES BIDEN PARDONS ‘INVALID’ AFTER BOMBSHELL AUTOPEN REPORT
This undated photo shows a framed image of an autopen in the White House in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump added the photo in place of former President Biden’s portrait as Republicans question his use of an autopen to sign important documents, including pardons. (Credit: White House)
“This is appalling, and everyone in America saw during the debate and during the last few months of the Biden administration, this was a president in decline. The staffers confirmed that they would go weeks, months and even years without communicating with Joe Biden,” he continued.
“This is a massive cover-up, and what we determined was every pardon should be declared null and void.”
A Biden spokesperson told Digital on Tuesday that the investigation was “baseless.”
A 2005 Justice Department decision under former President George W. Bush determined the president can legally sign bills and other documents with an autopen, allowing the chief executive to authorize staff to apply his signature using the device.
Former President Barack Obama reportedly became the first to use the measure to sign legislation in 2011, but critics contend that questions over Biden’s cognitive health create lingering concerns.
Biden has vehemently denied that others exercised presidential powers during his tenure and responded to the Trump administration’s investigation into his autopen use in the following statement earlier this year:
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APP
“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.”
‘ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
