WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is terminating all documents, including pardons, that he said his predecessor Joe Biden had signed using an autopen, a move that legal experts doubted would hold up in court.
The autopen is used to replicate a person’s signature with precision, typically for high-volume or ceremonial documents. It has been employed for years by presidents of both major parties to sign letters and proclamations.
Trump and his supporters have made a variety of unfounded claims that Biden’s use of the device while president invalidated his actions or suggested that he was not fully aware of these actions. It is not known whether Biden used autopen on pardons.
“Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Legal experts contacted by Reuters were dubious.
“It’s never been thought that a president has the ability to void a prior president’s pardons,” said Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
“There is absolutely no constitutional or legal basis” for Trump to reverse pardons due to the use of an autopen, said Bernadette Meyler, a professor at Stanford Law School.
Brian Kalt, a professor at Michigan State University College of Law, said in an email that the administration would only be able to challenge the validity of a pardon in court.
The court would need to agree that it is invalid, which would “require proving to the court’s satisfaction that Biden didn’t authorize them.”
Representatives for Biden did not respond to a request for comment.
Before leaving office in January, Biden issued several pardons, including for family members whom he wanted to protect from politically motivated investigations. He also commuted sentences, including for non-violent drug offenders.
Trump, known for his provocative style and dislike for his political opponents, has repeatedly targeted Biden’s use of the autopen to sign official documents during his presidency.
Trump has questioned Biden’s mental fitness and suggested that aides, not Biden himself, made key decisions. Biden and his former aides have denied these claims, emphasizing the president’s active role in governing.
Trump’s threat related to Biden’s pardons comes as he has issued his own pardon authority to an extraordinary degree. Trump on Wednesday pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States. Trump said, without providing evidence, that Hernandez had been the victim of a witch hunt by Biden’s administration.
Trump issued 70 pardons in the first 10 months of his second term and is on track to greatly surpass the number of pardons issued by his 21st century predecessors.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Costas Pitas, Sara Merken and Steve Holland; editing by Rami Ayyub and Leslie Adler)
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