As time goes on, we’re getting some better looks at what was really going on in the Biden White House, and it ain’t pretty.
Turns out that while befuddled old Joe Biden was sitting in the Oval Office, using all of the mental energy at his command to keep his eyes from crossing, some (so far) anonymous staffer was using the old presidential auto-pen to sign, well, everything, in the president’s name.
On Friday, an exclusive New York Post piece broke, giving us a better idea of just how much was going on,and how little then-President Biden seems to have known about it.
A key aide to former President Joe Biden may have exceeded their authority by liberally using an autopen to sign official documents, according to two former White House sources, as President Trump’s aides set up “far more restrictive” rules governing the use of the mechanical device.
A document obtained by The Post outlines the narrow set of circumstances in which Trump’s signature can be affixed to documents, following controversy this week kicked off by a Heritage Foundation analysis of Biden signatures on various records, including last-minute pardons.
A small group of officials under both Biden and Trump have been delegated the power to get documents “signed” robotically, but 82-year-old Biden’s perceived cognitive decline sparked debate about whether some aides may have assumed his wishes in his final stretch as commander-in-chief.
It seems to have done a lot more than just spark debate:
One Biden White House source told The Post they suspect that a key aide to the then-president may have made unilateral determinations on what to auto-sign. The Post is not publishing that staffer’s name due to the lack of concrete evidence and refutations by other colleagues.
The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what “the boss” wanted, the source said, but compatriots would have “no idea” if it was true because the internal culture was to not ask questions.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s go through it in steps.
First, we have an anonymous source talking about an anonymous “key aide,” although the language implies that the key aide is known. The Post is (rightly) not naming them because everything is still fuzzy. That part isn’t suspicious; that’s good journalism. What they have at this point is little more than rumor.
But assuming the anonymous source is telling the truth, we have a “key aide” involved, who may well have signed any number of executive actions and orders in the president’s name without him knowing about it. Oh, and did we mention pardons? He or she could have used the autopen to sign those.
If there is any “there” there, this is a scandal of epic proportions. We might have had a shadow president for how long? Months? Years? This person may well have been illegally signing documents using this tool without then-President Biden’s knowledge. This would be a constitutional crisis of the first water, with the potential to negate scores, maybe hundreds, of Biden administration actions, including, possibly, legislation signed into law.
See Related: Is the Pardon Attorney’s Dismissal Sign of an Investigation Into Biden’s Last-Minute Pardons?
And here’s the really crazy bit from the NY Post report, linked above:
The autopen, housed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, hasn’t been used only for weighty documents — such as pardons issued to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Dr. Anthony Fauci in the closing days of Biden’s term.
In fact, the pen has been used by White House staff to ink everything from kitchen utensils to sports memorabilia.
Kitchen utensils? Oh, for crying out loud. Could these people be any less serious?
The Trump administration is changing the rules on how the autopen is used, according to an internal memo:
An internal memo drafted Thursday by Trump staff secretary William Scharf, who for the past two months has publicly described and presented documents to Trump for his signature in the Oval Office, lays out the restrictive current use of the autopen.
“We have gone significantly further than [the] need for express approval, both in this Administration and in the First Trump Administration,” Scharf wrote.“Our practice around autopen usage is far more restrictive than most previous administrations. We do not use the autopen for documents that exercise the powers of the Presidency. So, for example, we do not use the autopen for executive orders, presidential memoranda, decision memoranda, nominations, appointment orders or commissions, or bills to be signed,” he wrote.
Well, that’s a relief.
Now, it’s likely nothing will come of this. Joe Biden is, let’s be honest, non compos mentis. And, right or wrong, these things rarely result in arrests or prosecutions. We’ll probably just have to write it off as another reason that, last November, the country was spared four more years of this kind of crap.
But as someone once said, this is a big effin’ deal.
