Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for Trump enemies are legal and binding, several attorneys have told Newsweek.
President Donald Trump wrote on Monday that Biden’s pardons for the January 6 committee are invalid because they were signed with an autopen.
Why It Matters
Before the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump vowed over 100 times that he would prosecute and jail his political enemies.
Should Trump declare Biden’s pardons invalid, he could seek the prosecution of the January 6 committee, which wrote a report criticizing the president for his supporters’ riot at the Capitol building.
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to Washington, DC, from Florida, on March 16, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
What To Know
Before he left office, President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned the January 6 committee.
A preemptive pardon prevents an incoming administration from bringing any criminal charges against someone who has not already been accused of a crime.
Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, on Monday that Joe Biden’s pardoning of the committee members was “void, vacant and of no further effect” because Biden allegedly used an autopen—a device that replicates a person’s signature.
‘Void’ and ‘Vacant’
On March 17, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “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,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime.”
Trump repeatedly claimed that the January 6 committee, led by Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and former Republican Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, “destroyed” evidence and should be prosecuted.
Biden also issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and retired General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been highly critical of Trump’s actions during the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
What People Are Saying
The president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers law firm in California, Neama Rahmani, told Newsweek that the use of an autopen does not invalidate any presidential document.
“There is no requirement that a pardon or other executive order have the President’s physical signature.
“The issue is authority, not the physical act of signing or an ink signature. As long as the President has authorized the use of the autopen, documents signed with an autopen are legally valid,” said Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor.
“This is consistent with the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion on this issue. Trump or others who are challenging the pardons will have to establish that Biden did not authorize the autopen signatures or the pardons themselves,” he said.
Los Angeles, California, attorney John J. Perlstein, agreed that Biden’s autopen signature was valid.
“Under the Constitution, pardons do not even need to be in writing,” Perlstein told Newsweek.
“The President has the right to grant trusted members of his Cabinet the right to formally sign his name, meaning even if Biden’s team used an auto signature, pardons would still be valid,” he said.
What Happens Next
Trump may seek to have some of the January 6 committee arrested for allegedly hiding evidence, but that would immediately be challenged in federal court. Under the constitution, members of Congress also have immunity for legitimate acts committed in the furtherance of their work.
