Donald Trump says all documents signed by autopen under Joe Biden are terminated, escalating his attacks on his predecessor’s mental capacity.
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump declared Friday that all documents signed by autopen under Joe Biden were “terminated” in a legally uncertain move.
The former president escalated his favorite attack line against his predecessor, frequently criticizing Biden’s alleged use of autopen for signing pardons, executive orders and other documents.
“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,” Trump said on social media.
“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 has claimed autopen use under Biden proved the then-president was mentally incapacitated and not in control of the White House.
Various autopen systems have been used by previous presidents without similar controversy.
Biden was 82 when he left office, while Trump is 79 and due to leave office in January 2029.
Conservative legal commentator Ed Whelan noted Trump could revoke executive orders regardless of how Biden signed them.
“But he doesn’t have the same freedom with respect to ‘anything else’ (e.g., bills enacted by Congress, pardons) that Biden directed be signed by autopen.”
The Justice Department ruled in 2005 that presidents don’t need to sign bills by hand and can direct officials to use autopen.
Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill by autopen while in Europe in 2011, according to The New York Times.
In his final days, Biden pardoned people targeted by Trump including his own son, lawmakers who investigated Trump, a critical military general and the nation’s top Covid expert. – AFP
