Trump Claims Biden's Pardons Are Void Because of an Autopen, but They Just Aren't

If you ever find yourself sitting behind the Oval Office as the president, you'll likely realize fairly quickly that that job requires signing a lot of stuff. Recently, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social suggested that at least some of President Joe Biden's signatures were null and void because they had been signed using an autopen.

As is often the case with Trump's Truth social posts, this led to quite a few questions. One of the more surprising ones, though, was the number of people who were confused about what autopens are. Here's what we know.

An autopen is exactly what it sounds like. It's a machine that can replicate a person's signature perfectly using a mechanical arm to hold a pen. Essentially, this technology exists to allow people who have to affix their signature to many documents to avoid wrist pain or carpal tunnel. It's a technology that has existed for some time, and one that there's never really been much controversy around.

Trump suggested that Joe Biden's pardons for the Jan. 6 select committee, staff members, and officers from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, and U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the panel were not valid because they had been signed with an autopen.

He wrote that they "hereby declared void, vacant, and of no further force of effect, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen."

He added that Biden "didn't know anything about them," but of course did not provide any evidence to support that claim. He added that the members of the select committee "should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level."

The Department of Justice has held for 20 years that pardons can be signed with an autopen, and the Constitution puts very few limits around the president's pardon power, as Trump well knows.

He cannot void the pardons of a previous president, and there's no evidence to suggest that his thin rationale means that the pardons are actually void.

Of course, Trump has already shown little regard for the rule of law in other areas (including defying numerous court orders), so it seems distinctly possible that he will just claim the pardons are null and void and do what he wants with the people they refer to.

It's also true, of course, that the Department of Justice should not be weaponized against political enemies of the president. Trump has, again, flouted this convention to such an extent that it no longer seems surprising when he claims openly that his DOJ will go after anyone Trump wants, as his post suggests.

So under the normal rules, it should not matter whether Biden's pardons were signed with an autopen or not. Trump's reasoning, though, isn't really the point. The point is that the president is signaling his intention to ignore the pardon whether he has the power to or not, and it's up to someone else to try to stop him.