Claims of Biden's Pardons Being 'Void' by Trump Lack Evidence

Former President Donald Trump's recent assertion that many of President Joe Biden's pardons are "void" due to being signed with an autopen has been met with skepticism from legal experts and fact-checkers. Trump made this claim on Truth Social without providing any evidence to back his assertion. BBC Verify reported that many pardons issued by Biden were signed by hand, with photographs documenting Biden engaging in the manual signing of at least two pardons, including those for marijuana possession and non-violent offenders in 2022.

While a 2005 Department of Justice memo from the Bush administration stated that a president does not need to physically sign every document, ruling out the automatic signature device does not invalidate pardons. Legal experts clarified that no law in the U.S. states that documents signed via autopen are not legally binding. Additionally, the National Archives confirmed that presidential signatures used in official documents are standardized to maintain consistency across publications such as the Federal Register, where signatures for pardons by past presidents, including Trump, appear the same.

Though Trump did not detail the specific pardons he refers to, he has made prior comments targeting Biden's decisions, especially concerning pardons connected to cases like the January 6th Capitol riots. Legal scholars assert that challenging Biden's pardons on these grounds would not only be unprecedented but could have broader implications for how automated signatures are viewed in U.S. governance.