Trump tries to void Biden's pardons, blaming autopen. Many presidents have used it

 https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5330709/autopen-biden-pardon-void

President Trump is claiming without evidence that some of former President Joe Biden's actions are invalid because he allegedly used a machine to automate signatures on documents, which is a longstanding practice in the White House.

The notion that Biden relied on the autopen to sign important documents was heavily perpetuated by the Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation that played a key role in promoting false claims about noncitizen voting last year.

It is not clear whether Biden actually used an autopen to sign the documents in question. And even if he did, legal experts say it's not clear the pardons could be rescinded — for that or any other reason.

Jay Wexler, a professor of constitutional law at Boston University School of Law, told NPR he thinks the autopen issue is a "nonstarter" and a "distraction." Importantly, he says, there is nothing in the Constitution that requires pardons be in writing at all.