US President Donald Trump has claimed to have revoked pardons issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, for known Trump critics, according to his statement on his online platform, Truth Social. Trump alleged that Biden did not personally sign the documents, instead, they were signed by an autopen, a signature machine, at the end of his term. Trump declared the pardons invalid, stating they have no effect.
Biden had issued a series of pre-emptive pardons in January, just before the end of his term, including for members of the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming committee, aiming to protect Trump critics like former Republican Representative Liz Cheney from potential prosecution. On Monday, Trump stated that members of the former committee should know that investigations can be conducted at the highest level against them. He wrote, “The ‘pardon’s’ that the sluggish Joe Biden granted to the unelected committee of political criminals and many others are hereby declared null, void and of no force or effect, because they were executed by autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them, but, what’s more important, he didn’t know about them! The necessary pardon documents were not explained to Biden nor approved by him. He knew nothing about them and the people who signed them may have committed a crime. Therefore, those in the ‘Unselect Committee’ who during their two-year witch hunt on me and many innocent people destroyed and deleted all the evidence should precisely know that they are being investigated at the highest level. The fact is that they were probably responsible for the documents signed in their name without the knowledge or consent of the worst president in the history of our country, the corrupt Joe Biden.”
When asked if all documents signed by an autopen under Biden’s name should be considered invalid, Trump replied on Monday, “I think so. That’s not my decision, it will be decided by a court.”
In the German media, such as the Springer-owned newspaper Welt, it is being criticized that Trump has not presented evidence that the pardon documents were indeed signed by an autopen and not by Biden personally and he has not explained why such signatures should be invalid.
Biden had also pre-emptively pardoned former White House COVID advisor Anthony Fauci, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and his son Hunter Biden, aiming to prevent criminal prosecutions.