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High-ranking Biden administration officials repeatedly questioned and criticized how the president's team decided on controversial pardons and allowed the frequent use of an autopen to sign measures late in his term, internal emails obtained by Axios show.
How it happened: After the political backlash to President Biden pardoning his son Hunter last Dec. 1, the White House began pushing to find more people to grant clemency to, according to people familiar with the internal dynamics.
"There was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon — and then they largely didn't run it by the Justice Department to vet them," a person familiar with the process told Axios.
Biden granted clemency to more people than any president in U.S. history — 4,245 people. More than 95% of those actions occurred in the final 3½ months of his presidency, according to Pew Research.
Many of those actions, including pardoning other members of his family on his last day in office, were signed using an autopen — a computerized version of the president's signature that didn't require him to physically sign the document.
The intrigue: Biden's pardon of his family members went through a unique process.
Near the beginning of his presidency in 2021, incoming staff secretary Jess Hertz wrote a memo to Biden, citing precedent from the Obama administration to argue his original signature should still be used for "pardon letters."
By 2025, Biden had opted for the autopen to pardon five members of his family — including his brother and sister, who had been accused of leveraging the Biden family name for financial benefit. The decision to do so was made in a meeting that included First Lady Jill Biden's top aide Anthony Bernal, according to internal emails.
An email from Biden's chief of staff, Jeff Zients, at 10:31pm the night of Jan. 19 — less than 14 hours before Biden was to leave office — confirmed the use of the presidential autopen for those pardons.
"I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all the following pardons. Thanks, JZ," the email from Zients' account said.
The order came from Zients' email address, but he didn't personally send it.
Zients' aide Rosa Po, who had access to Zients' email account, wrote and sent the authorization of the president's autopen to senior White House officials on Zients' behalf.
"He spoke to Rosa at the time, and he authorized her to send that email, which she sometimes did, but only with his permission," according to a person close to Zients.
Zients, Po and Hertz didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment.
Interesting. I wonder if these pardons will hold up if challenged in court. Either way it seems suspicious.
How it happened: After the political backlash to President Biden pardoning his son Hunter last Dec. 1, the White House began pushing to find more people to grant clemency to, according to people familiar with the internal dynamics.
"There was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon — and then they largely didn't run it by the Justice Department to vet them," a person familiar with the process told Axios.
Biden granted clemency to more people than any president in U.S. history — 4,245 people. More than 95% of those actions occurred in the final 3½ months of his presidency, according to Pew Research.
Many of those actions, including pardoning other members of his family on his last day in office, were signed using an autopen — a computerized version of the president's signature that didn't require him to physically sign the document.
The intrigue: Biden's pardon of his family members went through a unique process.
Near the beginning of his presidency in 2021, incoming staff secretary Jess Hertz wrote a memo to Biden, citing precedent from the Obama administration to argue his original signature should still be used for "pardon letters."
By 2025, Biden had opted for the autopen to pardon five members of his family — including his brother and sister, who had been accused of leveraging the Biden family name for financial benefit. The decision to do so was made in a meeting that included First Lady Jill Biden's top aide Anthony Bernal, according to internal emails.
An email from Biden's chief of staff, Jeff Zients, at 10:31pm the night of Jan. 19 — less than 14 hours before Biden was to leave office — confirmed the use of the presidential autopen for those pardons.
"I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all the following pardons. Thanks, JZ," the email from Zients' account said.
The order came from Zients' email address, but he didn't personally send it.
Zients' aide Rosa Po, who had access to Zients' email account, wrote and sent the authorization of the president's autopen to senior White House officials on Zients' behalf.
"He spoke to Rosa at the time, and he authorized her to send that email, which she sometimes did, but only with his permission," according to a person close to Zients.
Zients, Po and Hertz didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment.
Interesting. I wonder if these pardons will hold up if challenged in court. Either way it seems suspicious.
