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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
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A government watchdog has accused the Biden administration of employing an autopen to sign nearly all of former President Joe Biden’s executive orders, sparking questions about who was truly making key decisions during his tenure.
An autopen is an electromechanical device that precisely replicates a person’s signature. High-ranking officials, including U.S. presidents, sometimes use it to sign large volumes of documents without their direct input.
Although legally acceptable in some cases, its use for signing critical legal documents—especially without transparent oversight—has raised concerns about authenticity and accountability.
A report from the Oversight Project, which is a division of the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, claims that every document featuring Biden’s signature—aside from the letter announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 race—seems to have been produced using an autopen.
These findings have sparked concerns about Biden’s cognitive state and raised questions over whether unelected officials were effectively making decisions on his behalf.
“WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY,” the Oversight Project declared on X, along with images comparing Biden’s signatures. The watchdog alleged that during Biden’s presidency, important executive actions—such as orders, pardons, and directives—were likely signed without his direct involvement.
The group also noted a document — the letter where Biden announced he was dropping his reelection bid — appears to have a different style of signature.
Amid increasing pressure from Republicans and transparency advocates, there are growing calls for Congress to investigate who controlled Biden’s presidential signings and whether the American public was misled about who was truly running the country.
This month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey urged the U.S. Department of Justice to examine whether aides to former President Biden concealed his cognitive decline to promote a far-left agenda.
In a public letter, Bailey claimed that much of Biden’s final policies are “legally void” and that staffers may have taken advantage of his condition to issue orders without his informed consent.
“By now, Biden’s mental decline is famous,” Bailey wrote to Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz. “Under the 25th Amendment, his inability to make decisions should have meant a succession of power.”
🚨Biden Autopen Pardons on VACATION?🚨
Who is behind this autopen on 12/30/2022 that pardoned six criminals (with the exact same autopen signature) while Joe Biden was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands?
Note they all say they are "Signed in the City of… https://t.co/b0SEtalm4N pic.twitter.com/dN7BbVOiVj
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) March 10, 2025
He further claimed Biden’s staffers issued “aggressively much farther to the left” orders that should be invalid.
“Who has been running the country for the last few years?” Bailey asked in his letter. “I fear that Mr. Biden… was a mere puppet for far-left, unelected staffers. The people deserve to know the truth.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recalled an incident earlier this year that also fueled speculation that Biden wasn’t in charge of his own administration and wasn’t signing his own orders.
Johnson said that during a meeting at the Oval Office with Biden in 2024, the then-commander-in-chief did not remember he signed an executive order pausing the sale of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe.
Johnson recounted the story publicly for the first time during an episode of Bari Weiss’ podcast “Honestly” for The Free Press. He explained that, based on his “personal observation” in dealing with Biden, the president “has not been in charge for some time.”
His account was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal in June, although that report was based on anonymous sources.
When Weiss pressed Johnson for more details, he recounted how Biden’s staff continually dismissed his attempts to schedule a meeting with the president in January 2024, amid “big national concerns” that, as he put it, kept him awake at night.