A new report claims that former President Joe Biden only signed one pardon by hand.

The Fox News report, which does not cite the source of the information, said Biden “only signed one pardon by hand during his final weeks in office, and it was his most controversial one.”

According the report’s headline, “Biden appears to have used the autopen to sign pardons for Dr. Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, his family members and others.”

The report later said in its text, “Biden appears to have signed those final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating Jan. 6.”

“But the former president signed one by hand for his son. Biden pardoned his son Hunter in December 2024 after vowing to the American people for months he would not do so,” the text then said, suggesting the previous paragraph was incorrect.

The Oversight Project of the Heritage Foundation has noted that six pardons were signed on Dec. 30, 2022, when Biden was on vacation in the Virgin Islands.

However, the documents all carry an affirmation stating that “I have hereunto
signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed,” according to the foundation’s report.

“They read further ‘done at the City of Washington this [Day] of [Month] in the year of our Lord Two thousand and Twenty-[year].'”

“This statement is doubly inaccurate for all autopenned clemency warrants — the
President did not sign,” the report continued.

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“This statement is inaccurate for the pardons issued on December 30, 2022. … On the 30th, the day he ‘signed’ the pardons, President Biden was golfing with his grandson on the island of St. Croix.”

The use of the autopen in the Biden White House to sign documents, coupled with revelations about Biden’s declining competence toward the end of his administration, has become controversial because it is linked to debate over whether Biden knew what was being signed in his name.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said his predecessor did not have “much of an idea what was going on,” according to Fox News.

On Wednesday, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Biden aides were using the autopen to sign documents without Biden’s knowledge.

On Thursday, Trump said the Biden administration embraced positions Biden had not, suggesting someone else was making decisions in the Biden White House.

“He was never for open borders. He was never for transgender for everybody. He was never for men playing in women’s sports. I mean, he changed,” Trump said.

“I mean, all of these things that that changed so radically. I don’t think he had any idea … I said it during the debate and I say it now, he didn’t have much of an idea what was going on,” he said.

“Essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president, and that is wrong,” he said. “It’s illegal. It’s so bad, and it’s so disrespectful to our country.”

Trump said the autopen has limited use in the Trump White House.

“I sign important documents. Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important. Even if you’re signing ambassadorships or —  and I consider that important, I think it’s inappropriate,” Trump said. “You have somebody that’s devoting four years of their life or more to being an ambassador. I think you really deserve — that person deserves to get a real signature, not … an autopen signature.”

“I think it’s very disrespectful to people when they get an autopen signature,” Trump said.

According to Fox News, Trump’s memo to Bondi directed her to discern whether Biden aides were using the autopen for important documents while claiming to the pubic Biden was competent to discharge the duties of his office.

“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote.

“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,” Trump wrote

Biden pushed back against the memo.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said, according to Axios.

But Trump said Biden has undergone “serious cognitive decline” for years.

“Biden’s cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even ‘worse’ in private, and those closest to him ‘tried to hide it’ from the public,” Trump said.

“To do so, Biden’s advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties,” Trump said.

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