President Trump has declared that the final pardons issued by former President Joe Biden are null and void, citing their authorization via autopen rather than Biden’s direct approval. The move has already sparked legal debate over whether executive clemency can be overturned by a successor.
“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."
Biden’s last-minute pardons covered a range of high-profile figures, including all nine members of the House January 6 Select Committee, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and former White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci. The timing and scope of these pardons prompted immediate backlash, with Trump saying in response that the move was “disgraceful” and suggesting many of those who received pardons were guilty of “major crimes.”
Andrew Bailey, the Missouri attorney general, recently expressed alarm at Biden’s use of autopen signatures, saying that dozens of executive orders and other documents had apparently been authorized without Biden’s direct involvement. He added that if staffers were signing legal documents for Biden without his approval, those orders — including the last-minute pardons — might be unconstitutional and therefore legally void.
🚨BREAKING: I am demanding the DOJ investigated whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 5, 2025
If true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void. pic.twitter.com/pOhATRfw2j
The pardon, of the January 6 Committee members, is especially contentious. Trump himself has accused them of deleting and destroying evidence from their probe into him and his allies. He also alleged that they arranged their own pardons without proper Biden oversight.
Mark Milley, a vocal critic of Trump who once called the former president a “wannabe dictator,” was also among those pardoned. His statements during the House investigation of Jan. 6 were integral to the committee’s findings. Another controversial figure, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was also granted an emergency pardon. Fauci’s managing of the COVID-19 pandemic, and his rejection of the lab-leak theory, have faced sharp and sustained scrutiny. Federal inquiries subsequently concluded that taxpayer funds were funneled into gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite Fauci’s previous denials that he made before Congress.
It is uncertain whether Trump’s attempt to nullify Biden’s pardons will be determined to be legal. That said, the drama around questioning the former president’s deteriorating state of mind and his administration’s use of an autopen to sign official government documents is only stoking the question; who was really running Biden’s White House? It’s unclear whether courts will act, but investigations of Biden’s last-minute actions are probably only beginning.
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