Biden Admin. Official Admits She Didn’t Know If Autopen Orders Came From President

President Donald Trump is helping congressional Republicans investigate his White House predecessor, Joe Biden, and the Biden administration’s extensive use of the autopen. Nine senior Biden aides have been called to testify before the House Oversight Committee, and the Trump White House decided Tuesday to waive executive privilege for the staffers, allowing committee members to grill them on the autopen use without any legal obstacles.

“Evidence that aides to former President Biden concealed information regarding his fitness to exercise the powers of the President—and may have unconstitutionally exercised those powers themselves to aid in their concealment—implicates both Congress’ constitutional and legislative powers,” wrote Deputy White House Counsel Gary Lawkowski in a letter to former Biden adviser and staff secretary Neera Tanden and her attorneys. “In light of [the] unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest,” Lawkowski continued.

Trump also waived executive privilege for eight other Biden administration officials: Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, Chiefs of Staff Ron Klain and Bruce Reed, and Senior Advisors Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, and Ashley Williams, as well as Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to Jill Biden.

Tanden testified before the committee in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday, but reportedly told congressmen that, although she was “authorized” to use the autopen to sign Biden administration orders and documents, she did not know if Biden himself approved or authorized decisions. According to Tanden, she and other Biden aides would send requests for autopen use approval to members of Biden’s “inner circle,” but had no way of verifying that the president himself had signed off on those requests by the time that they were returned.

The Biden adviser further claimed that she did not discuss Biden’s declining physical or cognitive health with other administration officials, and subsequently told reporters that there was “absolutely not” an attempt to cover up the state of Biden’s health.

Previous reports have suggested that Biden was unaware of a number of executive orders that he supposedly signed. The then-president’s failing cognitive state coupled with the administration’s broad use of the autopen has caused concern among Republicans over the constitutionality of the Biden administration’s actions. Family Research Council Action Director Matt Carpenter recounted in comments to The Washington Stand, “At first, the presidential use of the autopen was limited to signing checks, correspondence, and other nonlegislative tasks. In 2011, Obama authorized the use of the autopen to sign an extension of the Patriot Act while he was in France.” He continued, “Now, the use of the autopen has grown so much that we have no idea to what extent Biden—who was clearly cognitively deficient throughout his entire term as president—was involved in official business during his time as president.”

“Good for President Trump in waiving executive privilege and allowing Biden staffers to testify in front of Congress about the use of the autopen in the White House,” Carpenter continued. He said, “Biden issued more acts of clemency (4,245) than any other president in history, including preemptive pardons in the final days of his administration for his son Hunter, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members and staff on the Jan. 6 Committee.”

Carpenter observed, “There’s a fundamental legal question underlying these preemptive pardons, which is: If the president is potentially unable to perform the duties of his office because of his declining mental health, what safeguards exist to ensure the American people the use of the autopen aligns with the president’s intentions?”

In addition to the House Oversight Committee’s investigation, Trump has launched his own probe into the Biden administration’s autopen use and the cover-up of the former president’s health. Rather than have the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia conduct the investigation, as would be typical, Trump has handed the task to White House Counsel David Warrington and the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ select subcommittee on investigations and the Senate Judiciary Committee have also launched investigations and conducted hearings surrounding the autopen use and the cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline.

Originally published by The Washington Stand

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