Trump says he's invalidating some Biden pardons, claiming power he doesn't have

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: 'Dictator S**t': Trump's Middle-Of-The-Night Meltdown Nulling Biden Pardons Is Slammed

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Source: NBC News

Trump says he’s invalidating some Biden pardons, claiming power he doesn’t have

Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to invalidate Joe Biden’s pardons. The Republican is apparently simply asserting the right anyway.

March 17, 2025, 7:58 AM EDT
By Steve Benen

Midway through Barack Obama’s third year as president, Congress approved a controversial measure related to national security, with just 15 minutes to spare before certain surveillance powers were set to expire. The president, however, was in France when the bill cleared Capitol Hill.

In generations past, this might’ve posed a logistical challenge, but thanks to modern technology, White House officials weren’t concerned: Obama authorized use of the presidential “autopen” to sign the legislation into law. Some House Republicans weren’t pleased, but the administration pointed to a Justice Department guidance, written for George W. Bush, on the legal permissibility of the tool.

In the years that followed, discussion about the use of autopens has largely evaporated, though late last week, it apparently made a comeback: During remarks at the Justice Department on Friday, Donald Trump questioned Joe Biden’s use of the tool, saying that measures signed by his Democratic predecessor might not be “valid.”

Two days later, the Republican incumbent posted an item to his social media platform, suggesting that it was the autopen, and not Biden himself, who served as president for four years.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-says-s-invalidating-biden-pardons-claiming-power-doesnt-rcna196671

[Eugene]

1. Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are 'void' as he used autopen

Source: The Guardian

Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are ‘void’ as he used autopen

President claims without evidence that January 6 panel members’ pre-emptive clemency was not signed personally

Martin Pengelly
Mon 17 Mar 2025 14.35 GMT
First published on Mon 17 Mar 2025 12.44 GMT

Donald Trump claimed on Monday, without offering evidence, that pardons signed by Joe Biden were “void, vacant and of no further force and effect” because they were signed with an autopen.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an autopen as “a device that mechanically reproduces a person’s signature”

Trump made his claim in a post to his social media platform that used his abusive nicknames for Biden and members of the House January 6 committee, writing: “The ‘Pardons; that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.

“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/trump-biden-pardons-void

[Chasstev365]

2. Dime-Store Mussolini Says What?

Aside from trying to be a wannabe dictator, his petty, grugeholding, childishness never ceases to amaze me.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Trump has the power the courts give him.