Former President Trump has asserted that numerous pardons issued by President Biden are invalid, claiming they were signed with an “autopen” – a device replicating a person’s signature – rather than manually.
Trump provided no supporting evidence for his claim, which he posted on Truth Social.
BBC Verify has identified several instances where Biden signed pardons by hand, not autopen.
Moreover, a sample presidential signature is utilized on U.S. government documents stored in the Federal Register, a digital archive. This practice was followed under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
Legal experts have also stated that U.S. law contains no provision to invalidate pardons signed with an autopen.
Did Biden Sign Pardons Using an Autopen?
On Truth Social, Trump stated: “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!”.
Trump did not specify which pardons he was referencing, but he has previously criticized the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riots, referring to it as the “unselect committee,” and has also criticized Biden for pardoning family members.
BBC Verify reviewed official photographs of Biden taken at the White House and those posted on the official White House X account and found multiple examples of him signing pardons by hand.
In October 2022, Biden was photographed signing an order pardoning individuals imprisoned for marijuana possession.
In the same year, he also signed a pardon for non-violent offenders.
It remains unknown whether Biden has signed any pardons exclusively using an autopen.
Last May, CNN reported that he signed a bill for a one-week extension of federal aviation funding using an autopen.
BBC Verify has requested Biden’s office for his autopen usage records and the White House to provide evidence supporting Trump’s claim.
Trump seems to have drawn inspiration from the Oversight Project – part of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation – which alleges that Biden’s January 19 pardons, including those for some family members and political figures such as Anthony Fauci, all bore the same autopen signature.
We have asked The Heritage Foundation for its methodology. Previously, it has spotlighted other Biden documents it claims used autopen signatures, along with screenshots from the Federal Register.
The Federal Register is the official daily publication of various presidential and governmental documents, all featuring a standard signature derived from a single sample.
A National Archives spokesperson informed 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.”
We examined presidential documents archived by the Federal Register under both Trump administrations and found identical signatures on various documents.
This includes Trump’s pardons for the January 6 rioters.
Trump had previously signed these pardons by hand, as demonstrated in a video from January.
The U.S. Department of Justice also publishes presidential pardons. We have inquired about their archival process for these documents.
Are Documents Signed with Autopen Legally Valid?
Legal experts consulted stated that U.S. law does not invalidate official documents, including presidential pardons, signed with an autopen.
Andrew Moran, a professor of politics at London Metropolitan University, noted that previous presidents have utilized autopens.
“For less critical documents, autopen usage is not unusual.
“However, for something as significant as a pardon, I would anticipate that Biden would have signed it [by hand]”, he said.
A 2005 Department of Justice memo, issued during the Bush administration, stated that the President is not required 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,” according to the memo.
Although George W. Bush did not use an autopen himself, President Obama employed it in 2011.
Autopens have also been used by earlier presidents, including JFK and Harry Truman.
Can Presidents Void Pardons?
Professor Erin Delaney, director of the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism at UCL, stated that an attempt by Trump to rescind Biden’s pardons would be a “violation of unwritten constitutional norms”.
Critically, she argues, he could not pursue this action without prosecuting, or re-prosecuting, the individuals who were granted immunity.
Furthermore, legally challenging Biden’s pardons due to autopen usage would also question other aspects of U.S. governance that use automatic signatures, such as bills passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, she added.
Professor Moran notes that a president revoking a predecessor’s pardon is exceedingly rare.
“Historically, the only example I’m aware of is toward the end of Andrew Johnson’s presidency in the 1860s, when he issued some pardons which were revoked before they were accepted. But that’s a very small number.
“If he [Trump] decides that he wants to go after the people who were pardoned, that will end up in the courts and then that would become the point where the constitution is really tested”, he said.
Additional reporting by Tamara Kovacevic and Shayan Sardarizadeh