Federal prosecutors spent months trying to turn Joe Biden's use of an autopen into a criminal case—and quietly walked away without ever reaching a grand jury, people familiar with the effort tell the New York Times and NBC News. At President Trump's urging, the Justice Department examined whether Biden or his aides broke the law by using an autopen to sign clemency documents in his final months as president, amid Trump-backed claims that Biden was too cognitively impaired to approve pardons himself. The main problem, according to the Times: There was no case.
Veteran prosecutors in the US attorney's office in Washington, led by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro, reportedly doubted from the start that there was anything resembling a prosecutable offense. Investigators struggled even to define a potential crime and to decide whether to focus on aides or Biden, whose official acts are broadly shielded by a 2024 Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Biden, who has called Trump and his allies "liars," has said his staff used the autopen to handle a high volume of paperwork but that he personally made the decisions.
The autopen probe ultimately fizzled without charges around the time that a grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers over a video reminding troops they must refuse unlawful orders. The collapse of the case has reinforced concerns inside the Justice Department that Trump is increasingly willing to treat federal law enforcement as a tool against political rivals, per the Times and NBC. Prosecutors around the country have faced pressure to open investigations targeting Trump critics—from New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fed Chair Jerome Powell to Democratic officials in Minnesota accused of "conspiring" against immigration enforcement.
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