Can Donald Trump undo Biden-era presidential pardons allegedly signed with ‘autopen’?

The President claimed that Biden “did not know anything about these documents” and that these “were not explained to, or approved by, Biden.”

When asked about his own use of the autopen, Trump said, “We may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter because it’s nice… But to sign pardons and all of the things he signed with an autopen, is disgraceful.”

What is an autopen and is its use contentious? Can Trump really void past presidential pardons?

First, what is an autopen?

An autopen is essentially a printer-size machine that duplicates signatures using real ink, allowing public figures to autograph thousands of items, from posters to memorabilia. The machine has an arm that can hold a standard pen or pencil and can reproduce the programmed signature on paper.

Have autopens been used by Presidents before?

The device is not a new concept. A precursor to the Autopen was the 19th-century ‘Polygraph’. It was essentially a pantograph, allowing two or more pens to be moved simultaneously by the writer to make duplicate copies. The device was created by John Isaac Hawkins and patented in the US in 1803. US President Thomas Jefferson acquired this device a year later, calling it “the finest invention of the present age”.

Jefferson, who previously used a copying press, commended the Polygraph for its convenience. An article on Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello says that he exclusively used the polygraph for duplicating his correspondence. In an 1809 letter, he wrote “he could not…live without the Polygraph.”

(While a polygraph is known today as a lie-detecting machine, the Oxford English Dictionary first recorded the term polygraph to mean a lie-detecting device only in 1871.)

Technology progressed from this device until a robot arm could be used to duplicate a signature without user involvement. The Smithsonian Magazine recognises Harry Truman as the first President post World War II to use an autopen in office, and said that the White House autopen remained “a closely guarded secret until Gerald Ford’s administration publicly acknowledged its use.”

More recently, Barack Obama courted controversy in 2011 when he used the autopen to sign an extension of the Patriot Act while attending the G8 summit in France. He did this again in 2013, using an autopen to sign the Fiscal Cliff Bill, while he was on holiday in Hawaii.

Why has Trump targeted Biden’s pardons?

The issue was raised by the conservative thinktank, Heritage Foundation, responsible for the Project 2025 conservative policy wishlist. The foundation’s Oversight Project tweeted last week that it had analysed thousands of pages of documents with Biden’s signatures, including pardons, which it claimed was signed by an autopen.
https://twitter.com/OversightPR/status/1899520975156216146
The president then picked up on conservative media outlets amplifying these claims.

The pardons themselves have long been a bone of contention for Trump. As the outgoing president, Joe Biden had issued a series of pre-emptive pardons for the committee that prosecuted the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. In a statement, he then justified this action, saying these persons were being “threatened with criminal prosecutions” by Trump, and that he “cannot in good conscience do nothing.” Trump called this committee “the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs”.

Two, Trump, and the Republican Party have long questioned Biden’s mental acumen as President, and his ability to make decisions.

And can Trump overturn Biden’s pardons?

Quite simply, no. According to the US Constitution, the President does not have the authority to overturn a predecessor’s pardons.

Article II Section 2 of the Constitution simply says that the President “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

This is boosted by a 2005 Department of Justice (DoJ) memo, which says the President need not “personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign” into law. He may “sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”

Further, a 1929 DoJ opinion said that “neither the Constitution nor statute prescribed the method by which executive clemency shall be exercised or evidenced. It is wholly for the president to decide.”

A Bloomberg report also cited a 2024 federal appeals court decision which found that “nothing in the Constitution restricts the President’s exercise of the clemency power to commutations that have been rendered through a documented writing.” According to legal experts, if Trump were to try and prosecute anyone pardoned by Biden, the case would likely be taken to court and ruled against him.

However, the President seems intent on subjecting the pardoned person to the tedious legal process regardless of the clemency they were awarded.