President Donald Trump has claimed that “many” pardons issued by Joe Biden are void because the former president signed them with “autopen” – a device which reproduces a person’s signature – rather than by hand.
President Trump did not provide evidence for his claim – which was posted on Truth Social.
US government documents have the same presidential signature when they’re stored in the Federal Register – a digital archive – and this was the case under Trump as well as under Biden.
On Truth Social, President Trump said that: “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!”.
Donald Trump didn’t specify which pardons he was referring to but he has previously referred to the house select committee investigating the 6 January riots as the “unselect committee”, and has criticised Biden for pardoning family members.
In October 2022, President Biden was pictured signing an order pardoning those in jail for marijuana possession.
In the same year, he also signed a pardon for non-violent offenders.
It is not known whether Joe Biden has signed any pardons only using autopen.
In May 2024, CNN did report that he signed a bill for a one-week extension for federal aviation funding using autopen.
President Trump appears to have taken his cue from the Oversight Project – part of the Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation – which has claimed that Biden’s 19 January pardons – of some family members and political figures including Anthony Fauci – all had the same autopen signature.
A National Archives spokesperson told the fact-checking website Snopes that: “At the beginning of each administration, the White House sends a sample of the President’s signature to the Federal Register, which uses it to create the graphic image for all Presidential Documents published in the Federal Register,”
A 2005 memo from the Department of Justice during the Bush administration stated that the President does not have to physically sign a bill for it to become law.
“The President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen”, the memo said.
Although George W. Bush did not use autopen himself, President Barack Obama used it in 2011.
Autopen has also been used by earlier presidents including JFK and Harry Truman.
