Overview

• President Biden told The New York Times in a rare interview that he personally decided on nearly 4,000 commutations and pre-emptive pardons and authorized autopen use to handle the volume.
• Internal emails show Chief of Staff Jeff Zients greenlit autopen signatures after Biden approved broad eligibility criteria without reviewing individual names.
• House Oversight has subpoenaed senior aides and held a closed-door deposition in which White House physician Kevin O’Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment.
• The Justice Department and a Trump-initiated review continue probing whether staffers misused the autopen or concealed Biden’s cognitive fitness.
• Republicans led by Oversight Chair James Comer accuse aides of historic executive overreach while Democratic defenders point to longstanding legal precedent.