WH Emails: Autopen Manager Was Given Pardon List Before Anybody Approved It

Joe Biden, like Punxsutawney Phil, emerged from his hole on Monday to explain his latest post-presidential crisis, the autopen.

He saw the shadow of the wreckage of his former administration, so I guess that means six more months of scandal.

It should have gone so well. After all, the source was a simpatico one: The New York Times, which — a little over a year ago, and six days before the presidential debate — published a piece titled “How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts.” That was meant to explain how Republicans were improperly playing around with video to make him look senile. Less than a week later, he proved to America that he didn’t need the help from the GOP.

This time, it was a little more straightforward: “Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen.” Don’t question any of the pardons or commutations or clemencies he issued in his end-of-presidency spree, because even though he didn’t appear to be in his right mind to the casual observer, he was the one making the shots.

He and others then go on to say that the one making the shots was effectively chief of staff Jeff Zients.

“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed,” the article read. “Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted.”

However, he insisted that he gave oral permission for every pardon, including categorial pardons for entire classes.

“I made every decision,” he said.

I mean, except for the ones that aides added later on: “Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted.”

“Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons…Rather than ask Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version thru the autopen, which they saw as…routine”https://t.co/TwhbvujB6c pic.twitter.com/4OHRSl93or

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) July 13, 2025

Well, er, that can happen to anyone who’s not in compos mentis. But the key passage comes well into the story and one day before Biden left office: Jan. 19, 2025.

The s show that Mr. Biden added the pre-emptive pardons for his family at the Jan. 19 meeting. They also suggest that he changed some of his thinking.

The summary of the first meeting said Mr. Biden had decided to grant a pardon to Don Siegelman, a former Democratic governor of Alabama who was convicted in 2006 of federal corruption charges. The summary of the second said the president had decided to rescind his approval of a pardon for Mr. Siegelman.

Notably, President Barack Obama was heavily lobbied to pardon Mr. Siegelman and never did. In the interview, Mr. Biden said he changed his mind after reflecting “on it a bit more,” noting that many people apply for pardons and that Mr. Siegelman was out of prison and not in any jeopardy.

The Jan. 19 summary also showed that Mr. Biden made a late decision to pardon Ernest W. Cromartie II, a former city councilman in Columbia, S.C. In 2010, he had pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge and later served a year in prison.

This last one is kind of problematic when you consider that Biden made the decision after attending church with South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn.

You may remember that name as the guy who basically saved Joe Biden’s political hinder in 2020; the then-House majority whip endorsed him days before the South Carolina primary when he looked like toast and Sen. Bernie Sanders appeared destined to cruise to the nomination. Clyburn’s endorsement carried significant weight with the state’s black community, which propelled him to victory and then helped him to a Super Tuesday rout.

So clearly, this is a sensitive issue. However, one thing that the Times doesn’t really seem to mention is that all of these pardons were apparently — for reasons we’ll get to in a second — pre-prepared for the autopen. It was only for Biden to give the word.

Except Biden didn’t give the official word. Read on:

At the Jan. 19 meeting, which took place in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House residence, Mr. Biden kept his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk through such decisions, according to people familiar with the matter.

The s show that an aide to Mr. Siskel sent a draft summary of Mr. Biden’s decisions at that meeting to an assistant to Mr. Zients, copying Mr. Siskel, at 10:03 p.m. The assistant forwarded it to Mr. Reed and Mr. Zients, asking for their approval, and then sent a final version to Ms. Feldman — copying many meeting participants and aides — at 10:28 p.m.

Three minutes later, Mr. Zients hit “reply all” and wrote, “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”

OK, let’s first start with Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

The president. Not the president’s aides, not the president’s chief of staff, not whoever’s running the autopen that day, the president.

So, what we have here is someone who was given a huge list of pardons. This included — except for the Hunter pardon and the preemptive pardons given to prominent apparatchiks like Anthony Fauci and Mark Milley — the most sensitive of this last batch of pardons, a conviction not even Barack Obama would touch, but Biden apparently felt the need to erase. This conviction was meted out to not just one of his closest political allies, but arguably the political ally most singularly responsible for his four years in the White House.

We are told that the day before he leaves office, well after 10 p.m. — which, evidence has amply established, is well outside of the hours where Biden was usually awake, lucid, and engaged enough to make critical decisions — he gave the decision to autopen the lot.

Except he didn’t convey the decision. Jeff Zients, his chief of staff, told the people sitting on a stack of potential pardons to go right ahead. Those people apparently didn’t question this order and went right ahead. If either the Biden administration or the New York Times were aware of details that made this sound less fishy than it already does, they were rather ungenerously kept from the reader — which, in a piece where Biden came out swinging to defend his legacy, seems like an oversight that definitely should have been rectified.

Instead, this is the impression we are left with:

Jeff Zients, 46th President of the United States apparently pic.twitter.com/wuemwcrGKZ

— Anthony Galli (@RallyWithGalli) July 14, 2025

The general consensus is that the autopen makes documents legally binding even if the president signs it — if, of course, the decision is his. What we have here is ample evidence that it wasn’t.

Not only did Zients and other aides play an outsized role in the decision-making process, at the other end of it — i.e., the people managing the autopen — there were reams of pardons and clemencies ready to go, which were put into the machine at the behest of a chief of staff. And, not to put too fine a point on this, but all of it was done while anyone with a brain could have safely reckoned the president’s brain was gone, at least for the job he was in the final moments of doing.

This shouldn’t be standard operating procedure under any presidency — but especially not one where the executive’s power to execute is obviously limited. It simply doesn’t pass the smell test.

Please, Punxsutawney Joe: Keep popping your head out of your hole and making your situation worse. Even the New York Times, trying to put its best face on your autopen-o-rama, couldn’t save your hide.

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