Trump Orders Investigation Into Biden’s Actions as President
Trump alleges the predecessor’s aides abused power of presidential signatures
June 4, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
Key Points
Trump questions the validity of Biden’s pardons signed via autopen, echoing conspiracy theories.
President Trump ordered an investigation into Joe Biden’s actions as president, including his use of an autopen, alleging that his predecessor’s aides hid evidence of what he called Biden’s “serious cognitive decline.”
Trump ordered the White House counsel, in consultation with the attorney general, to review whether Biden’s team conspired to deceive the public about his mental state and unlawfully exercise presidential authority. Trump alleged that “Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline.”
Autopens are machines programmed to imitate signatures and are often used by presidents and other government officials to sign legal documents. Past administrations have said autopen-signed documents are legally valid.
In a statement, Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Biden added, referring to the GOP’s tax and spending bill.
Trump has used the autopen, too, though he has played down those instances as dealing with minor correspondence.
“I almost never use the autopen,” he told reporters last week. “In fact, yesterday I was signing about 81—I think it was 81 proclamations and statements to people that I think should be signed by us. I think when you write letters to foreign dignitaries or presidents or prime ministers, you should be signing those letters, not done with autopens.”
Trump’s order Wednesday comes after he commented recently on Biden’s use of an autopen and amplified conspiracy theories. On Saturday, Trump shared on Truth Social a conspiracy theory that Biden was “executed” in 2020 and replaced by a clone.
In March, Trump questioned the validity of pardons issued by his predecessor, calling them “void, vacant, and of no further force of effect” because they were signed via autopen. He said at the time, without evidence, that the documents weren’t properly explained to Biden and that the staff who used the autopen “may have committed a crime.”
New books detailing Biden’s decline in office have sparked a public reckoning in the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the former president was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Write to Victoria Albert at victoria.albert@wsj.com
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Appeared in the June 5, 2025, print edition as 'Biden’s Actions as President Face Review'.
Trump orders probe into Biden’s use of autopen, alleging aides concealed cognitive decline.
Biden disputes Trump’s claims, calling them a distraction from the GOP’s legislative agenda.