This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump on Monday declared a vast list of pardons issued by Joe Biden on his way out the door of the White House to be "VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT."
It is because those pardons, to a long list of his own family members, prominently including son Hunter Biden who was convicted of gun charge felonies and pleaded guilty to a list of tax charges and was facing possible prison time, were "done by Autopen."
On the social media site Truth Social, Trump confirmed:
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. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. 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. 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!"
WND had reported only hours earlier how Trump brought attention again to the allegations that some of Biden's orders and pardons might not be worth anything due to his cognitive decline.
He then posted on Truth Social images of the most recent commanders in chief, with Biden's official portrait displaying an autopen signature device.
Trump had voiced his concerns during a speech at the U.S. Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Friday, Trump said:
"Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real mess with Russia and everything else he did, frankly, but he didn't know about it, and he, generally speaking, signed it with autopen. So how would he know? …
"Who's doing this? When my people come up … [and say], 'Sir, this is an executive order.' They explain it to me. And 90% of the time I sign it and 99% of the time, I say, 'Do it,' but they come up and I sign it, but you don't use autopen."
"No. 1, it's disrespectful to the office. No. 2, maybe it's not even valid, because, you know, who's getting him to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing. If he did, all of these bad things wouldn't be happening.
A Heritage Oversight Project report called into question the validity of Biden's actions, finding the vast majority of documents signed by Biden used the mechanical device, including the last-minute pardons of Biden family members, Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the members of the Jan. 6 Committee.
"We gathered every document we could find with Biden's signature over the course of his presidency," reads a Heritage Oversight post on X.
"All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former president was dropping out of the race last year."
The controversy has led Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe the matter.
"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.
Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and current Fox News host, told journalist Benny Johnson that Biden's entire presidency was orchestrated, and that he wasn't aware of anything he was signing.
"It's all been fake," Lara Trump said. "The signatures were fake. The hype around Kamala Harris was fake. Joe Biden being OK, fake. His Oval Office, [Trump counsel] Alina Habba the other day, exposed … remember the set that we used to see him on? It's fake!"
"It's just all been orchestrated and planned. And we as Americans honestly are lucky that nothing worse happened to this country over the past four years. Who the hell was in charge? I don't know. That is terrifying to know they're just using autopens. Literally, Benny, anyone could have signed anything for Joe Biden."
"This is why nobody wants to be a part of this party, 'cause it's all phony, it's all smoke and mirrors, it's all fake. And people want authenticity. They can smell phony from a mile away."
She also brought up House Speaker Mike Johnson's recent revelation that Biden himself had no idea he had paused LNG exports to Europe.
In January, Johnson called Biden's ignorance of the matter the "scariest thing I've ever seen."
"It occurred to me he was not lying to me," Johnson noted. "He genuinely did not know what he had signed. I walked outta that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, 'We are in serious trouble.'"
Meanwhile, the New York Post reports: "A key aide to former President Joe Biden may have exceeded their authority by liberally using an autopen to sign official documents, according to two former White House sources, as President Trump's aides set up 'far more restrictive' rules governing the use of the mechanical device."
The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what "the boss" wanted, the source said, but compatriots would have "no idea" if it was true because the internal culture was to not ask questions.
"I feared no one as much as I feared that [staffer]. To me, [the staffer] basically was the president," the person said. "No one ever questioned [the staffer]. Period."
"Everyone" was suspicious of this individual exceeding their authority when claiming to speak for the president, the source said. "But no one would actually say it."
"I think [the aide] was using the autopen as standard and past protocol," The Post's informant said.
"There is no clarity on who actually approved what – POTUS or [the aide]."
