President Trump claimed Friday that he was repealing all documents signed by former President Joe Biden using an autopen — and threatened to have his predecessor “brought up on charges of perjury” if he asserts that staffers were acting on his orders when using the mechanical.
Trump, 79, has for months characterized Biden, 83, as AWOL during his four-year term and claimed that unelected aides were running the country without authorization.
“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
President Trump said he was repealing all documents signed by former President Joe Biden using an autopen. AP
“The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him. I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.”
Trump added: “Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The president already has repealed many of Biden’s executive orders and suggested that many of his pardons are invalid, though Biden told the New York Times in an interview this year he authorized the use of his name for controversial last-minute pardons.
Trump threatened his predcessor with perjury charges in a Truth Social post on Friday. Matthew Symons for NY Post
Auto-penned signatures carry full legal force so long as aides were operating under the directive of the president and ave been used by chief executives for decades, including for everything from routine proclamations and constituent letters to — in rare cases — actual legislation.
A House Republican-led investigation this year of the autopen’s use under Biden produced no direct evidence that aides acted without presidential approval, but generated circumstantial evidence that he rarely interacted with many key West Wing officials, while emails showed internal concern about how to implement orally communicated instructions on end-of-term clemency actions.
A Biden spokeswoman declined to comment.
