Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy held up copies of former President Joe Biden’s pardons on Tuesday to ask White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt if the Trump administration views them as valid.
Doocy presented Biden’s last-minute pardons for his family and members of the January 6 Select Committee and pointed to the “very neat” signatures that appeared to be written by an autopen. After pointing to one with a messy signature, Leavitt said that President Donald Trump’s administration is investigating who was really in charge in the previous administration.
“Most of the big [pardons] have the same, very neat signature. We would expect that probably to be the autopen. There is one that looks different, it looks authentic, in fact if you look at the last name it looks like the [former] president was having a hard time spelling his last name there. Is this White House of the opinion that the only pardon that would count is one that the president signed himself for Hunter Biden?”
“It’s very interesting props, if you want to bring them to my office later so I can take a closer look, I would like to do that,” Leavitt said. “[President Donald Trump] is making a good point when he discusses the usage of the autopen. Who was running the country for the past four years? Perhaps those documents were signed with the autopen. Something that I believe the Department of Justice is looking into, as you saw, Ed Martin made an announcement this morning to launch an investigation because the American people deserve answers.”
Former interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin confirmed on Tuesday that he will lead an independent review to determine whether “unelected staffers” acted as a “proxy president” when it came to pardons, Reuters reported.
Trump claimed in a March 17 Truth Social post that Biden “did not sign” the blanket pardons in his final days and declared them “void, vacant and of no further force or effect.”
Despite stating for months that he would not do so, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, on Dec. 1, 2024, from any possible crime committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024. The pardon relieved Hunter from any potential crime committed in relation to his overseas business dealings, his conviction regarding his illegal gun purchase and the indictment charging him with tax crimes.
Moments before leaving office, Biden issued pardons for his brothers and his in-laws, including James, who was connected to Hunter’s overseas business dealings. His brother Frank, who also received a pardon, used his brother’s inauguration in January 2021 to promote his law firm in Florida in connection to a lawsuit against sugar farmers.
Biden’s preemptive pardon for the January 6 Committee granted former Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois broad immunity for their work investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, which they all appeared to have accepted.
