Joe Biden's Pardons Investigated by Justice Department: Report
By Kate Plummer and Shane Croucher
Pardons granted by former President Joe Biden are under investigation by the Department of Justice, according to a report.
Ed Martin, the pardon attorney in the DOJ, emailed staff to say the probe will explore Biden's competence and if people were "taking advantage of him through use of autopen or other means," Reuters reported.
Newsweek has contacted the DOJ and representatives for Biden for comment outside of regular working hours.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden
Former President Joe Biden speaking at a conference in Chicago in April. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Why It Matters
The investigation comes as public discussion about Biden's health and decision-making has reignited in recent weeks.
Axios obtained audio from Biden's October 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, which showed memory lapses and prolonged pauses. Meanwhile, a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson—Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again—suggested Biden had diminished mental faculties that aides concealed from the public.
Biden, who was 82 at the time he left office, had insisted that he was fully capable of making executive decisions, and no evidence has emerged suggesting otherwise.
However critics including President Donald Trump have claimed Biden may have used an autopen, a mechanical device that replicates signatures. This probe could revive questions among voters about Biden's fitness during his final months in office.
Biden announced a number of last-minute pardons before leaving office, including preemptive pardons to some family members and other GOP foes, as well as a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey, the late civil rights leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
The U.S. Constitution grants the president sweeping authority to issue pardons though at the time Biden drew bipartisan criticism for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden. Trump too has used his second presidency to issue pardons to January 6 Capitol Riot defendants, anti-abortion activists and other figures.
What To Know
The probe will question whether Biden "was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of autopen or other means," according to email seen by Reuters.
Martin's email did not outline which pardons were being investigated, or who had directed him to launch the probe.
However, it said that it would focus on Biden's pardons to his family members and will also look into 37 federal inmates whose sentences were changed from the death penalty to life imprisonment.
The family members Biden pardoned are James Biden, Frank Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, and their respective spouses—as well as his son, Hunter Biden, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
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What People Are Saying
Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek it was unlikely that anything will come from the investigation: "The president has unilateral power to pardon, so nothing is likely to come from the DOJ's investigation," he said. "If anything, the administration risks overreaching. The Trump White House also certainly doesn't want to get into a tit-for-tat over pardons, given that in his first term, it was Trump who pardoned multiple U.S. service members accused or convicted of war crimes and a slew of political associates."
Martin earlier this month indicated Biden would be investigated. "I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny. And they need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that's used correctly. So I do think we're going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did," Martin told ABC News during the press conference.
"If they're null and void, I'm not sure how that operates, but I can tell you we've had already, I've had in my current position, or my position as U.S. Attorney, we had been taking a look at some of the conduct surrounding the pardons and the Biden White House," he said.
He added that the use of an autopen was not necessarily an issue.
What Happens Next
What the investigation finds and whether there will be any consequences of its findings will become more clear in the weeks and months to come.
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