Tipsheet

We Know Who Controlled the Biden Autopen...and This Scandal Just Got Worse

Justice Department Official Ed Martin has been investigating the pardons issued by Joe Biden. They might not have been legal. The autopen has been a controversial aspect of the White House; some argue that it’s unconstitutional. Martin falls in the camp that it’s fine, but the president must be cogent about its use. There must be a paper trail and direct orders from the president to use this device to sign pardons and grant commutations, of which thousands were issued supposedly by President Drool-in-Soup. Martin claimed a senior Democratic Party whistleblower came forward. Some names were offered as being the ringleaders, namely Anita Dunn, Bob Bauer, Neera Tanden, Elizabeth Warren, and Ron Klain. 

Biden White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey D. Zients and Staff Secretary Stefanie Feldman can be added to this list, though these two might be the more concrete of the cabal that’s been reportedly named. Zients, Feldman, and White House Counsel Ed Siskel—all appear to be part of an insane command structure for issuing pardons under Biden’s name. 

The New York Times had a lengthy piece about this scandal after the National Archives turned over thousands of emails relating to the pardons for review by the DOJ. It seems that the pardons for the January 6th Committee and Anthony Fauci might not be binding. Also, how the Biden White House issued pardons is absolutely crazy: 

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Biden said that he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term, calling President Trump and other Republicans “liars” for claiming his aides had used an autopen to do so without his authorization. 

“I made every decision,” Mr. Biden said in a phone interview on Thursday, asserting that he had his staff use an autopen replicating his signature on the clemency warrants because “we’re talking about a whole lot of people.” 

[…] 

In the interview, Mr. Biden explained that he decided against commuting the sentences of three death-row inmates convicted of such crimes to life sentences, too, even though “some thought I should have.” Their offenses affected American society as a whole, Mr. Biden said, so commuting their sentences would have been “a bridge too far.” 

The fourth set was announced on Mr. Biden’s last day. They included pre-emptive pardons for members of his own family and various people who have drawn Mr. Trump’s ire. 

The emails reflect White House activity surrounding each of those tranches, including the dates of the meetings at which White House officials indicate Mr. Biden made decisions and the names of the senior aides in attendance. 

They also show that use of the autopen was managed by Mr. Biden’s White House staff secretary, Ms. Feldman. She wanted to receive written accounts confirming Mr. Biden’s oral instructions in the meetings before having it used to produce the warrants recording the clemency actions, the emails show. 

The aides referred to those written accounts of meetings at which Mr. Biden delivered oral decisions as “blurbs.” The accounts were drafted by aides to the senior advisers who had participated in the key meetings — like Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, Jeffrey D. Zients, and Mr. Siskel. 

The assistants who drafted the blurbs were not themselves in the room with Mr. Biden, according to the lists of meeting participants. The emails imply that Mr. Siskel and Mr. Zients relayed what Mr. Biden had said to the assistants, who then documented it. 

The assistants circulated the drafts to Mr. Siskel, Mr. Zients and other meeting participants before sending the final versions to Ms. Feldman, again copying the meeting participants. 

For the earlier sets of large-scale clemency actions, the process sometimes took place several days after the meeting with Mr. Biden. For two crucial meetings at the end of his term, it took place on the same days. 

[…] 

At the Jan. 19 meeting, which took place in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House residence, Mr. Biden kept his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk through such decisions, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The emails show that an aide to Mr. Siskel sent a draft summary of Mr. Biden’s decisions at that meeting to an assistant to Mr. Zients, copying Mr. Siskel, at 10:03 p.m. The assistant forwarded it to Mr. Reed and Mr. Zients, asking for their approval, and then sent a final version to Ms. Feldman — copying many meeting participants and aides — at 10:28 p.m. 

Three minutes later, Mr. Zients hit “reply all” and wrote, “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.” 

Of course, the Times tried to pivot in some areas, claiming that the emails they reviewed don’t paint the whole picture since they couldn’t analyze them all. Please note that the chief of staff appears to have unilaterally approved pardons, as the White House has been inundated with requests for pardons and commutations. There’s no way Biden knew what was going on, given his mental state. This is a circus. Staffers were helming the ship on this, not Biden, though that’s hardly shocking. But on these matters, where presidential pardoning power is one of the acts of executive power that’s damn-near absolute, it can’t be governed by a constitutional monarchy of sorts. The president cannot be a figurehead—he must personally sign off on all pardons. That, as we suspected, appears to be in doubt.

The timelines, Biden being gassed at this point, and the serial lies about his health, and later his cancer diagnosis, mean that nothing can be believed from these people. Folks, Biden's doctor took the fifth last week; need we say more about this cover-up? Also, let's not forget that Joe Biden told Speaker Mike Johnson that he had no idea he had signed an executive order on gas exports. It also took the speaker weeks to set up a meeting with Biden. Before that, Biden's staff interferred incessantly, and we all know why. 

They expect us to believe that Biden verbally gave these commands--sure, Jan.

UPDATE: Rand Paul is going after Fauci.

UPDATE II: Trump responds.