Trump calls for investigation into Biden aides’ use of autopen amid cognitive decline

President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an investigation into whether certain individuals working for former President Joe Biden conspired to deceive the public about his mental state while also exercising his presidential responsibilities by using an autopen.

In a memo on Wednesday, Trump said the president of the U.S. has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through the signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

“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.”

He continued, saying Biden had suffered from “serious cognitive decline” for years, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently concluded that Biden should not stand trial, despite clear evidence he broke the law, because of his mental state.

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“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.”

Still, during the Biden presidency, the White House issued over 1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the federal bench and issued more pardons and commutations than any administration in U.S. history, Trump said.

The president wrote about Biden’s decision just two days before Christmas 2024, to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 most dangerous criminals on federal death row, including mass murderers and child killers.

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“Although the authority to take these executive actions, along with many others, is constitutionally committed to the President, there are serious doubts as to the decision-making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name,” Trump wrote. “The vast majority of Biden’s executive actions were signed using a mechanical signature pen, often called an autopen, as opposed to Biden’s own hand. This was especially true of actions taken during the second half of his Presidency, when his cognitive decline had apparently become even more clear to those working most closely with him.

“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” he added.

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The memo goes on to call for an investigation that addresses if certain individuals, who are not named in the document, conspired to deceive the American public about the former president’s mental state and “unconstitutionally” exercised the president’s authority and responsibilities.

Specifically, Trump called on the attorney general’s investigation to look at any activity that purposefully shielded the public from information about Biden’s mental and physical health; any agreements between his aides to falsely deem recorded videos of Biden’s cognitive ability as fake; and any agreements between Biden’s aides to require false, public statements that elevated the president’s capabilities.

The investigation will also look at which policy documents the autopen was used for, including clemency grants, executive orders, and presidential memoranda, as well as who directed Biden’s signature to be affixed to those documents.

Trump said last week that he thinks Biden did not really agree with many of his administration’s lax border security policies, instead suggesting that those surrounding the former president took advantage of his declining faculties and utilized the autopen to pass radical directives pertaining to the border.

House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

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Biden released a statement later Wednesday, deriding Trump’s investigation as a “distraction.” 

“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. “This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.” 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.