Mary Chastain writes for Legal Insurrection about interesting developments at the U.S. Department of Justice.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice started investigating former President Joe Biden’s pardons, specifically the preemptive pardons he gave his family and clemency for 37 prisoners on federal death row.
Biden pardoned:
*Hunter Biden
*Brother James and his wife Sara
*Brother Francis
*Sister Valerie and her husband John Owens
The preemptive pardon for Hunter infuriated numerous people, especially since it covers charges he faced or might have faced from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.
Unfortunately, Reuters reported the DOJ investigation first. I say unfortunately because, of course, the author tried to water down the pardons and the possibility that Biden didn’t even sign them by attacking Trump.
Anyway, the wire organization reviewed an email sent by Ed Martin, the DOJ’s pardon attorney, saying the “investigation involves whether Biden ‘was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.’”
Peter Doocy of Fox News brought some of those pardons to the daily press briefing, noting that only Hunter’s pardon seems to have an authentic signature:
DOOCY: In fact, if you look at the last name, it almost looks like the president was having a hard time spelling his last name there. Is this White House of the opinion that the only pardon that would count is one that the president signed himself?
PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: Very interesting. Very interesting props. If you want to bring them to my office later so I can take a closer look. The president is making a good point when he discusses the usage of the autopen, who was running the country for the past four years. Perhaps those documents were signed with the autopen, something that I believe the Department of Justice is looking into.
