Joe Biden’s autopen debacle is back in the news, and it is not looking good for Joe.
A scathing report was released by a House committee, calling into question the validity of the pardons as Joe Biden was walking out the door of the White House.
Now, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) is arguing that many of Biden’s pardons should be voided.
When this issue first came up, Biden insisted that he “made every decision,” but it turns out that was not completely true.
It seems like Biden provided a framework, but the approvals were handed off, then apparently handed off again. It was to the point that staffers were concerned these pardons were not being fully vetted.
For instance, Justice Department ethics attorney Bradley Weinsheimer sent out a memo, writing, "Unfortunately and despite repeated requests and warnings, we were not afforded a reasonable opportunity to vet and provide input on those you were considering.”
He was far from the only one concerned about the sloppy work being done.
What I found most interesting about all of this was that initially, it looks like Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients was making the calls, but that is not necessarily true.
Email communications at the time show approvals coming from Zients’ email, but it appears that the emails were actually sent by aide Rosa Po, who had access to the account.
The report on the matter stated that she only sent the emails with her boss’ approval, but when you look at some of the time stamps, it is hard to believe that people were being woken up at 4 a.m. to sign off on these pardons.
One official even admitted, "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.”
If the pardons were all low-level criminals, I doubt most people would care, but there were some bad dudes that got their walking papers, so this has become a real issue for Biden.
After the House report was issued, Johnson stated, "It sounds like a terrible novel or something, but this is reality.” He continued, “And so the pardons, for example, he pardoned categories of violent criminals and turned them loose on the streets, and he didn't even know who. He didn't even know what the categories were, apparently, much less the individual people, that he pardoned."
He then added, "I mean, I used to be a constitutional litigator. I would love to take this case.”
I am not an attorney, but I am pretty well-versed on the Constitution, and I am on the same page as Johnson, especially with those communications. If I were the GOP, I would have no problem challenging these pardons to make Biden prove he authorized them.
