A big part of the Biden ‘autopen’ scandal is that we don’t really know who’s making decisions in parts of the government. A signature doesn’t really mean much these days and government has gotten so big and chaotic that there are really complicated chains of authority, yet a lot of the actual work, including even the signing, is down by junior personnel
As you read this story about events in the New York State governor’s office, consider it in line of the Biden administration, and how easy it would be for a foreign government to have been giving orders in the White House.
Alleged Chinese mole Linda Sun brazenly forged then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature in glowing missives sent to dignitaries from the Henan province, according to the feds and documents presented at her bombshell trial.
Jurors in Brooklyn federal court were shown copies of letters purportedly sent by Hochul on March 26, 2018, inviting a six-member delegation from the province in central China to a meeting with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
But the letters bore clearly forged versions of Hochul’s signature — that featured “overly loopy” handwriting, her former chief of staff Jeff Lewis testified.
The letters suggested that members of the delegation could expect discussions about “promoting greater investment, trade cooperation and tourism opportunities” with the Empire State, court records show.
Prosecutors say that Sun, who served as Cuomo’s director of Asian-American affairs, forged the governor’s then-No. 2 Hochul’s signature several times that year in an attempt to curry favor with Chinese officials.
“Her loyalty was for sale, and the Chinese government, which wanted to influence the New York government, was willing to pay her to do their bidding,” prosecutor Amanda Shami said during last week’s opening statements.
Would anyone have even been aware of it if there hadn’t been a larger investigation? Probably not. Who really pays attention to this stuff?
That’s why the question of who was actually wielding executive authority in the Biden administration and in any administration matters so much. There is a constitutionally appropriate chain of authority and then other chains of authority that there were brought into being through legislation. Those named officials are responsible for exercising their powers and overseeing their offices. The buck has to stop with them or we don’t have a government.
What we have is a system of low-level staffers who can do anything with no oversight and can work for anyone.
