Overview

• Biden said the autopen was used to sign documents across three clemency tranches that freed hundreds from home confinement, reduced sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, and commuted most death row sentences to life without parole.
• He maintained that an autopen was legally permissible and necessary to handle the volume of warrants in his final days.
• He acknowledged that his staff applied the autopen based on criteria he approved rather than hand-signing each individual pardon.
• The Department of Justice and the GOP-led House Oversight Committee have opened probes and issued subpoenas into his use of the device and allegations of a cover-up of his cognitive state.
• Dr. Kevin O’Connor cited physician-patient privilege and the Fifth Amendment to refuse answering questions during an Oversight Committee deposition.