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Justice Dept., Under Pressure From Trump, Fails to Build Autopen Case Against Biden (NYT Gift subscription) [View all]
Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were unable to build a case, underscoring the department’s increasing inability to follow through on the president’s desire to indict his rivals.
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/us/politics/trump-biden-autopen.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QlA.xwLL.lflWRm0uHywl&smid=tw-share
The Justice Department, after calls by President Trump to investigate former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., scrutinized whether Mr. Biden and his aides broke the law in using the autopen to sign presidential documents, but was ultimately unable to move forward with making a case, according to three people briefed on the matter.
The department’s failure to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides is the latest example of its increasing inability to follow through on Mr. Trump’s demands and bring indictments against those he wants to be criminally targeted. Some of those cases were rejected by grand juries, some were rejected by judges and some, like the autopen case, were abandoned by prosecutors.
But the fact that prosecutors even pursued the matter to begin with reflects the degree to which Mr. Trump has sought to use the levers of government to undermine Mr. Biden’s presidency by seizing on an unsubstantiated theory: that the pardons Mr. Biden issued in his final months in office were invalid because he did not have the mental capacity to consent to them.
The autopen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case: one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders.....
Still, the failed inquiry has only added to the sense among many federal investigators that Mr. Trump has become increasingly erratic in his desire to use the criminal justice system to punish his political adversaries for behavior that comes nowhere close to being criminal. Time and again, prosecutors in U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country have been pressured to open investigations into Mr. Trump’s foes and have responded with various reactions — some pushing ahead with inquiries they may not fully believe in and others pushing back by refusing to prosecute or resigning in protest.
The department’s failure to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides is the latest example of its increasing inability to follow through on Mr. Trump’s demands and bring indictments against those he wants to be criminally targeted. Some of those cases were rejected by grand juries, some were rejected by judges and some, like the autopen case, were abandoned by prosecutors.
But the fact that prosecutors even pursued the matter to begin with reflects the degree to which Mr. Trump has sought to use the levers of government to undermine Mr. Biden’s presidency by seizing on an unsubstantiated theory: that the pardons Mr. Biden issued in his final months in office were invalid because he did not have the mental capacity to consent to them.
The autopen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case: one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders.....
Still, the failed inquiry has only added to the sense among many federal investigators that Mr. Trump has become increasingly erratic in his desire to use the criminal justice system to punish his political adversaries for behavior that comes nowhere close to being criminal. Time and again, prosecutors in U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country have been pressured to open investigations into Mr. Trump’s foes and have responded with various reactions — some pushing ahead with inquiries they may not fully believe in and others pushing back by refusing to prosecute or resigning in protest.
No rational lawyer would launch this investigation nor would any attorney be stupid enough to bring the sedition charges against the six members of Congress on the First Amendment issue. trump is using the DOJ as his personal law firm for retribution.
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