For weeks the propaganda press has painted President Donald Trump and others as conspiracy theorists for suggesting that a secret cabal of unelected White House aides were using the autopen without President Joe Biden’s final authorization.
“Trump suggests Biden aides acted without then-president’s knowledge — but says he has no evidence,” The Associated Press’ Chris Megerian and Will Weissert wrote on June 5. They made sure to remind readers that when Trump was pressed for proof, the president said “No. But I’ve uncovered, you know, the human mind.” The framing was intentional to paint Trump’s claim as purely delusional.
MSNBC’s opinion writer and editor Hayes Brown wrote on June 6 that Trump’s claims that Biden aides used autopen signatures to secretly run the country while Biden declined cognitively are “dangerous” and “absurd.”
“Whatever probe Bondi conducts would theoretically hinge not on whether the White House autopen was used to sign official documents but on somehow proving that it was used without Biden’s express authorization. Is there any evidence backing up Trump’s allegation? Of course not, and Trump himself said as much in the Oval Office on Thursday,” Brown wrote, calling the suggestions “fiction.”
“Again, none of this will amount to anything legally without concrete evidence that a law or other official document was falsely signed without Biden’s consent. In both reality and the conspiracy theory being spun here, the autopen is merely a tool to be used,” Brown continued.
CNN’s Aaron Blake wrote on June 5 that Trump’s announcement of the investigation into the use of the autopen was “catnip for conservative media eager to keep the focus on the alleged coverup of Biden’s decline.”
“And Trump has certainly shown a talent for seeding baseless conspiracy theories for political gain,” Blake wrote. Blake later added that Trump’s suggestion that people used the autopen to “unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President” would “actually matter” if “somehow proven.”
Well, it appears The New York Times “somehow” proved exactly that.
A report released Sunday seemingly tried to tamp down Trump’s allegations, but in doing so, it casually confirmed that the Biden White House did in fact run clemency paperwork through the autopen without the president’s final sign-off on each case. In attempting to dispel Trump’s claims, The Times wrote that a review of internal emails “show that the Biden White House had a process to establish that Mr. Biden had orally made decisions in meetings before the staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman, who managed use of the autopen, would have clemency records put through the signing device.”
But then comes the bombshell:
“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence,” The Times’ Charlie Savage and Tyler Pager wrote.
“Small changes to the list” kept occurring after Biden “signed off,” according to the report and so, “Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure.”
Biden also reportedly made a list of “high-profile clemency decisions” during two meetings, one that occurred on Jan. 18, the other on Jan. 19. But it appears that the final approval for pardons during the Jan. 19 meeting came not from Biden, but White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
“Mr. Biden kept his aides until nearly 10 p.m. to talk through such decisions, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Times reported, referring to a Jan. 19 meeting.
“The emails show that an aide to Mr. Siskel sent a draft summary of Mr. Biden’s decisions at that meeting to an assistant to Mr. Zients, copying Mr. Siskel, at 10:03 p.m. The assistant forwarded it to Mr. Reed and Mr. Zients, asking for their approval, and then sent a final version to Ms. Feldman — copying many meeting participants and aides — at 10:28 p.m.,” according to the report.
“Three minutes later, Mr. Zients hit ‘reply all’ and wrote, ‘I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,’” the report continues.
While the AP, MSNBC, and CNN fell over themselves to brand Trump and anyone who questioned the use of autopens in Biden’s final weeks as conspiracy theorists, The New York Times has now — perhaps unwittingly — confirmed the core of what they mocked: Biden’s staff really did use the autopen on official presidential actions without Biden’s final approval.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
