Overview

• An Axios review of internal messages shows Chief of Staff Jeff Zients authorized use of the presidential autopen for five family pardons in a Jan. 19 email sent from his account by aide Rosa Po with his permission.
• Late-night Jan. 16 communications capture Staff Secretary Stef Feldman insisting on written confirmation of the president’s decision, with a deputy counsel noting “he doesn’t review the warrants” before roughly 2,490 commutations were autopen-signed on Jan. 17 after a Jan. 11 verbal OK.
• Justice Department lawyers objected to vague warrant language such as “offenses described to the Department of Justice,” and senior DOJ official Bradley Weinsheimer later wrote that labeling recipients nonviolent was “untrue, or at least misleading.”
• Internal records indicate DOJ received limited time to vet the mass actions, and examples cited by DOJ included recipients with violent histories, underscoring disputes over how the clemencies were characterized and executed.
• House Oversight, DOJ, and the current White House Counsel are investigating the approvals and recordkeeping, with Zients set to be interviewed Sept. 18, as legal analysts note autopen signatures are generally valid if they reflect the president’s intent and authorization.