The Department of Justice has quietly closed an investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign official documents, according to a source familiar with the matter.
DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin, the former “weaponization” czar, opened the investigation while he was serving as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The inquiry examined whether aides may have used the signature device without Biden’s full knowledge or authorization as his cognitive abilities declined late in his presidency.
The New York Times reported the development, saying the matter concerned whether Biden and his aides broke any laws using the autopen to sign presidential documents. The inquiry was later wound down under Jeanine Pirro, the current U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and a longtime ally of President Donald Trump.
The outlet also noted the autopen case was never presented to a grand jury, underscoring the difficulty prosecutors faced in pursuing a criminal case over the issue.
Pirro’s office is expected to release additional information about the matter in the near future, a source told the Washington Examiner. A spokesperson for the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesman for Pirro’s office.
Trump ordered a sweeping review of Biden’s use of an autopen in June, directing the DOJ to investigate whether aides used the device to conceal what he described as Biden’s “cognitive decline.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that some executive orders signed with an autopen should be considered invalid.
Last year, the House Committee on Oversight and Reforms spent months dragging former White House officials into closed-door testimonies to press them about the former president’s use of the autopen and whether they observed signs of his cognitive decline.
The committee released a 90-page report in October finding that Biden’s staff exercised presidential powers without authorization, and referred three key members of Biden’s Cabinet, including his physician Kevin O’Connor, for a DOJ investigation.
It remains unclear how frequently Biden used an autopen during his presidency, as there is no official government record tracking when the device is used. However, a group that shed light on Biden’s autopen use, the conservative nonprofit group known as the Oversight Project, said last year it identified three distinct signatures Biden used throughout his term as president and claimed it was used on eight separate dates in 2022 while the former president was staying at the White House.
Notably, a 2005 DOJ memo found that presidents can use the autopen for official documents, though it was previously rarely used by presidents until former President Barack Obama used it to sign legislation in 2011 while he was abroad.
Biden denied the allegations of his widespread autopen use in a June statement responding to Trump’s claims.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
On Wednesday evening, the Oversight Project released a statement to X criticizing the closure of the investigation.
The allegations from the @NYT that @DOJ @USAO_DC that were unable to move forward with a criminal prosecution into illegal autopen usage are disappointing. We will wait for the facts to emerge, but accountability for the “scandal of the century” is desperately needed and… pic.twitter.com/uCRPm0jlad
— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) March 4, 2026
FLORIDA ARRESTS FELON RELEASED THROUGH BIDEN AUTOPEN COMMUTATION
“The report from New York Times that the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C. were unable to move forward with a criminal prosecution into illegal autopen usage are disappointing,” the group said in a statement posted on X. “We will wait for the facts to emerge, but accountability for the ‘scandal of the century’ is desperately needed and deserved.”
The development comes as some Republican officials continue exploring legal avenues tied to Biden’s late-term clemency actions. In February, Florida authorities arrested a repeat offender whose federal prison sentence had been commuted in the final days of Biden’s presidency.
