Pardons, billions in aid, and climate orders—ghost-signed while Joe vacationed
NOTE: Two months into the second Trump administration, it is easy to forget Sleepy Joe Biden’s “bad old days” in the West Wing. President Trump’s first eight weeks are marked by EXCELLENCE, not mere competence, which is the subject of this week’s offering from Greg Maresca.
By Greg Maresca
The email was brief and to the point. “Greg, can you do some research and write something about this auto-sign issue with Biden?” I expected nothing less from the retired Marine colonel who began his nearly four decades of service in the Corps as a Parris Island recruit and whose autobiography “We’ll All Die as Marines” is a must-read for all who earned the eagle, globe, and anchor.
With two decades of writing a weekly op/ed column, plenty of suggestions roll in on what “I need to write.” However, Col. Bathurst and I were on the same wavelength about the autopen and its effects. It is an issue that faded as quickly as it was noticed.
In our polarized political environment, questions about abuse of executive power are dismissed or simply ignored when orchestrated by Democrats.
Rewind four years ago, when President Joe Biden first took office and infamously stated, “What am I signing here?”
Joe was no John Hancock. Instead, he was the frontman for Barack Obama’s third term.
Afterward, Biden’s systematic use of the presidential autopen e-signature became the norm, raising many troubling questions.
Did Biden know what he was signing, and if not, who had control of the autopen? Was it used without Biden’s approval? Provided Biden didn’t physically sign these documents, are they legally binding?
A recent Heritage Oversight Project report found that nearly all the documents signed by Biden over his four-year term used an autopen except the proclamation that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. The report also questioned the signature’s legality, especially concerning executive orders.
Then there are Biden’s last-minute pardons of certain family members, Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the members of the Jan. 6 Committee. Heritage’s report also revealed that some autopen-signed documents “pardoned six criminals while Biden was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” These documents were signed “at the city of Washington” as the autopen can reproduce the signature without the signatory present. Only the president of the United States can sign a pardon.
Once again, this begs the question: Did Biden possess the cognitive ability to do so, and is it legally binding when only a president can authorize and sign it?
Last year, Biden admitted to House Speaker Mike Johnson that he didn’t recall signing an executive order halting exports of liquid natural gas, which Johnson recounted in an interview with The Free Press, and said he “walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, we’re in serious trouble. Who is running the country?”
The Constitution does not allow for a presidential team of handlers. Rather, it authorizes one person, the elected president, to sign all bills into law. Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency. Someone suffering from dementia in the Oval Office was guaranteed to generate a constitutional crisis.
The far left took advantage of Biden’s obvious cognitive decline. It was their opportunity never to allow “a crisis to go to waste.” How often was the autopen used to authorize billions to Ukraine, USAID, or any other government agency?
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey desires to challenge the legitimacy of anything the 82-year-old Biden signed, given the concerns about the former president’s cognition. “I am demanding the DOJ investigate whether President Biden’s cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval,” Bailey said.
If true, these executive orders and pardons are unconstitutional and legally void.
The issue with Biden’s presidency is his signing of multiple pardons and a variety of documents, which he admitted he did not know he had signed while not being of sound mind.
In 2000, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act was signed into law, bestowing electronic signatures the same legal status as handwritten signatures. Just because they are accepted doesn’t mean they can’t be abused. The Biden administration took advantage of an incapacitated president, serving as more of a prop than president.
The fact that the president of the United States was unfit for four years is the biggest scandal in American history. Where is the accountability and reckoning?
The Department of Justice must thoroughly investigate and report to the American people.
There is no other recourse.
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