Constitutional Scholar Criticizes Biden for Using Autopen, Calls It a Constitutional Scandal
Constitutional legal scholar Randy Barnett has denounced the Biden administration’s use of an autopen, calling it ‘the biggest constitutional scandal in US history.’ The controversy centers on Biden’s aides using the machine-generated signature to execute official actions allegedly without his explicit approval. This has sparked debates about the legality and executive authority, with political tensions escalating between Democrats and Trump, who claims Biden’s staff concealed his cognitive decline through this method.
Barnett, a Georgetown University law professor who serves as the director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, was referring to an interview former President Joe Biden conducted with the New York Times defending his use of an autopen. Biden said he orally approved a long list of clemency and pardon actions at the end of his tenure, but that his aides used the aut, and that his aides used the autopen to officiate the actions. Biden told the Times that he was aware of every pardon ahead of leaving office in 2024, which included clemency and commutation actions related to 2,500 nonviolent drug offenders in his final weeks in office alone. He added that staff used the autopen for the pardons and commutations