(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Newly released emails show Biden White House staff raised alarms over rampant use of the autopen to issue pardons and official communications.
The emails—published by the New York Post on Thursday—show aides and DOJ attorneys seemingly questioning whether Joe Biden himself had approved pardons pushed by colleagues.
On Jan. 16, then-White House Staff Secretary Stef Feldman demanded evidence from West Wing lawyers that Biden had signed off before allowing the use of the autopen.
Notably, this email was tied to one of the largest pardon batches in U.S. history, the Post noted.
“I’m going to need email from [Deputy Assistant to the President] Rosa [Po] on original chain confirming P[resident] signs off on the specific documents when they are ready,” Feldman wrote, according to the outlet.
One recipient—deputy White House counsel Tyeesha Dixon—forwarded the email to Michael Posada, chief of staff to the White House counsel’s office.
“Michael, thoughts on how to handle this?” Dixon asked. “He doesn’t review the warrants,” Dixon added, referring to Biden.
Posada replied that they would need “something” from Po confirming the pardons “accurately” reflected Biden’s verbal orders from Jan. 11.
According to the Post, the mass pardons went out at 4:59 a.m.—far outside Biden’s limited work schedule by Democrats’ own admissions.
In an earlier email, Po wrote that Biden had told several officials on Jan. 11 that he wanted to “commute the sentences of those with crack-powder sentencing disparities who were determined by DOJ not to have a high likelihood of recidivism as determined by standards set by the First Step Act.”
These were just a handful of the emails released. However, none of the emails show staff ever seeking Biden’s final approval, raising serious questions about the legality of the pardons.
A Biden spokesperson defended the pardons but only after the Post exposed the emails, claiming the former president “made the decisions.”
“There is a concerted and willful blindness by Republicans when it comes to understanding how broad-based pardons work when they were issued by President Biden that doesn’t exist when it comes to understanding the broad pardons issued under Trump for January 6 insurrectionists,” the spokesperson added.
