Biden defends use of autopen for pardons, commutations: 'I made every decision'

Former President Biden is defended his use of an "autopen" for pardons and commutations during his administration, saying, "I made every decision."

Biden made the comments during an interview with The New York Times that was published on Sunday, as congressional Republicans and the Justice Department are investigating his use of the electronic device, which can replicate a signature, on clemency decisions.

The former president said that he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term, calling President Trump and other Republicans “liars” for claiming his aides had used an autopen for them without his authorization.

Biden explained that his staff used an autopen for his signature on the clemency warrants because “we’re talking about a whole lot of people.”

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in response that Biden “should not be trusted,” and “The truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country.”

Biden reduced the sentences of nearly 4,000 federal convicts and preemptively pardoned several people he considered potential targets of Trump for criminal investigations. He said that he protected them and members of his family so they wouldn't have huge legal bills from politically-motivated investigations by the DOJ under Trump.

“Everybody knows how vindictive he is, so we knew that they’d do what they’re doing now,” Biden said of his predecessor, President Donald Trump. “I consciously made all those decisions.”

He said the autopen was used on a total of 25 pardon and commutation warrants from last December to January. Some warrants included large batches of names because they were all part of the same broad policy category, like reducing the sentences of nonviolent drug offenders who met standards that Biden established.

One former aide said that after Biden made the decision, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing more information about specific inmates, resulting in small updates to the list. Instead of asking Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited, then ran the final version through the autopen, which they viewed as a routine procedure, the aide said.

Biden said that he discussed each of the high-profile individuals with aides, such as Gen. Mark Milley.

Biden said last month, following the newly-opened DOJ probe into his administration, "I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false."

Trump and congressional Republicans have argued that the autopen was used because of Biden's mental decline during office.