Justice Department autopen investigation isn’t over yet, official says
By Hannah Rabinowitz, Paula Reid, CNN
(CNN) — The Justice Department is still investigating whether people around former President Joe Biden broke the law with their use of an autopen, according to a senior Justice Department official.
Biden is not under investigation himself, the official said, as he is afforded broad protection under the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision granting presidents’ immunity for actions taken as part of their official duties while in office.
But prosecutors are looking at whether any of the former president’s aides may have used the autopen for actions beyond those authorized by Biden in the waning months of his administration. The official declined to say which criminal statute may have been violated.
The autopen investigation is one of several run by the Justice Department that addresses a complaint from Donald Trump himself, in this case that Biden’s sweeping pardons signed in the last several months he was in office were not valid because he didn’t have the mental capacity to knowingly sign off.
“I don’t think it’s the view of smart people in the room that the president cannot use the autopen” for pardons, the official said, adding that presidential pardon powers are virtually limitless.
Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney who also initially ran the probe, addressed the matter in a October message to the House Oversight Committee chair, saying: “The abuses carried in connection with [the Pardon] office provide further evidence … that bad actors exploited President Biden’s infirmary to secure their own agenda by, with, and through various means including the AutoPen.”
The investigation has since been taken over by the US attorney’s office in Washington, which is led by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro.
In recent months, the Justice Department investigation had not appeared to have much forward movement or activity, according to people familiar with the probe. But the Justice Department had remained interested in examining Biden for a potential case.
“We cannot comment on ongoing investigations,” Pirro said in a social media post Thursday.
The Justice Department has been under pressure from Trump to pursue cases against his political adversaries.
He recently expressed frustration that prosecutors have not been more successful in bringing charges in such cases.
The-CNN-Wire
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