New GOP bill would ban the use of autopen for presidential pardons

FIRST ON FOX: A House Republican is launching an effort to ban the “irresponsible” use of the autopen to sign presidential pardons, just days after President Donald Trump declared former President Joe Biden’s pardons “void” after they were allegedly signed via a mechanical device.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., will introduce the Signature Integrity for Granting National Pardons (SIGN) Act on Friday, shared first with Fox News Digital, to require that a sitting president personally sign any pardon or reprieve, prohibiting the use of a mechanical-signed signature, such as the autopen.

“Biden’s use of an autopen should automatically void his presidential pardons,” Carter told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The SIGN Pardons Act will restore the integrity of this important role in our justice system, ensuring that all pardons are physically signed by the Commander-in-Chief.”

The Republican-led legislation comes just days after Trump declared Biden’s 11th-hour presidential pardons “vacant” after allegedly being signed via autopen, a mechanical device that can replicate signatures. 

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“This irresponsible use of technology raises questions about who was really running the country during Biden’s term,” Carter added. “If Biden outsourced this constitutional duty to staff and machines, what other major decisions was he absent for?” 

A report published by an arm of the Heritage Foundation claimed that the majority of official documents signed by Biden allegedly an autopen signature.

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, claimed that Biden was unaware of the pardons signed in the final days of his term, which included pardoning members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

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“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime,” the president added.

Trump does not use an autopen to sign legally binding documents such as pardons, according to the White House.

Fox News Digital learned this week that an energy watchdog group, Power the Future, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi calling on her to investigate whether Biden also signed energy-related executive orders via autopen and if such actions “were instituted with the president’s knowledge.”

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel determined in 2005 that the president is permitted to use an autopen to sign bills into law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in February that said the absence of “a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News’ Diana Stancy, Andrew Mark Miller and Emma Colton contributed to this report.