Staff Reports
A recent post by former President Donald Trump on Truth Social has stirred the pot yet again, this time taking aim at the validity of pardons that President Biden issued to members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot. Trump claims that these pardons are essentially worthless since Biden supposedly used an autopen to sign them, which he boldly declares makes them “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.”
In a world filled with political machinations, the use of an autopen—a machine that replicates a signature—seems to serve as yet another tool for Democrats to distance themselves from accountability. While presidents have employed this nifty gadget for decades, one can’t help but wonder if employing it for something as weighty as pardons indicates that Biden might not have had a complete grasp on what he was putting his name to. The rhetoric around the autopen is hardly new, but Trump’s musings throw the spotlight on whether the president even knew what he was signing.
Trump insinuates that Biden’s reliance on mechanical signing devices means he didn’t know the pardons were being issued at all. Critics of the Biden administration seize on this for what it is: evidence that the current president may be out of his depth and someone else is calling the shots. According to Trump’s argument, the folks who do know what’s going on around Biden haven’t just crossed a line; they may have committed a crime, revealing the murky depths of the swamp in D.C.
Trump says Biden’s Jan. 6 committee pardons are invalidhttps://t.co/2odpKhG2vs pic.twitter.com/yINuJuZzvr
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) March 17, 2025
Adding to the drama, Trump further emphasizes that members of an already controversial committee face legal repercussions for their actions, claiming that they have destroyed documents and committed various infractions during their investigation. The House select committee—comprised of Democrats and a couple of Trump-critical Republicans—has been seen by many as a politically motivated witch hunt that tirelessly scoured through every nook and cranny to smear Trump while disregarding basic rules of fairness and due process.
Trump’s insistence that these pardons lack legitimacy touches on a broader constitutional discussion. Although the Constitution does not provide a mechanism for revoking a pardon, questions remain about the authenticity of the acts undertaken by an autopen-wielding president. This situation has echoes of history, harkening back to President Obama’s controversial use of the machine to sign the Patriot Act extension while abroad. Critics of Obama at the time made a similar fuss, pointing out that being thousands of miles away while permitting an autopen to sign legislation significantly diluted the importance of presidential authority.
Ultimately, the autopen saga adds another absurd chapter to the ongoing narrative in American politics, where wobbly signatures and questionable motives seem to define the left’s approach. Whether or not these pardons stand the test of legal scrutiny, one thing is certain: in this game of political chess, Trump isn’t poised to let any move by Biden pass unchallenged. It’s a striking reminder that even in moments where the ink may be dry, the implications of political maneuvering can still be anything but straightforward.
