Citing autopen use, GOP-led House Oversight Committee finds Biden actions ‘illegitimate’

Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released dueling reports on Tuesday, drawing conclusions about a probe into President Joe Biden’s fitness for duty.

The report written by the committee’s GOP majority questions the legitimacy of Biden’s executive actions and calls on the Justice Department to open an investigation into the Biden administration. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ report argues the committee’s review revealed no evidence of wrongdoing inside the Biden administration or any proof that Biden was unfit to serve as president.

The committee’s investigation was spurred by accusations made by President Donald Trump and his Republican allies about Biden’s mental fitness. Republicans have charged that Biden’s aides covered up a decline in the then-president’s cognitive ability and that the Biden administration misused the presidential autopen to issue executive actions without Biden’s direct involvement. Democrats have pushed back against these claims.

The committee’s Republican majority said Tuesday that it found no record that Biden approved executive actions in several instances, including ones related to presidential pardons. They also said they found Biden’s autopen - a mechanical device that can replicate signatures and that presidents often use to quickly sign documents - may have been used to sign off on actions without his knowledge.

The majority did not provide evidence to support these conclusions, writing that its analysis was based on the testimony of more than a dozen Biden aides. In that testimony, senior Biden officials repeatedly stated that Biden approved of each executive action authorized during his administration, that the autopen was not used incorrectly and that Biden did not show any signs of being unable to fulfill his presidential duties.

The committee’s Democratic minority said the testimony of the Biden administration witnesses interviewed during the investigation does not support the Republican conclusions.

The allegations brought by Trump and Republicans about Biden’s use of the autopen prompted a rare rebuke earlier this summer from the former president, who told the New York Times he “made every decision.”

A spokesperson for Biden dismissed the findings of the GOP-led Oversight report, saying in a statement that “there was no conspiracy, no cover-up and no wrongdoing.”

“This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency,” the spokesperson said.

A statement released Tuesday by Rep. Robert Garcia (California), the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, dismissed what he characterized as a “sham investigation.”

“[E]very White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States,” Garcia wrote. “The testimonies also make it clear the former President authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen.”

Biden has long been the target of scrutiny by the House Oversight Committee, where Trump ally Rep. James Comer (Kentucky) has been the top-ranking Republican since 2020. Since becoming chairman in 2023, Comer has pushed inquiries into Biden’s inner circle, including a look into the finances of Biden’s family members. An impeachment inquiry led by Comer and other House Republicans into whether Biden abused his office and sought to enrich his family ultimately collapsed last year.

The new Republican-led report states that unless the Biden administration can prove the president approved a given action, the committee “deems those actions taken through use of the autopen as void,” and that it “finds numerous executive actions - particularly clemency actions - taken during the Biden Administration were illegitimate.” The committee does not have the power to undo executive actions.

The committee also sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday asking the Justice Department to investigate every executive action taken during the Biden administration to determine whether Biden gave his approval, and to investigate whether any legal consequences should follow from the committee’s findings. In their report, Democrats cast the investigation as a partisan effort to persecute Trump’s political enemies.

Trump has remained fixated on Biden, attacking him almost daily, including during major presidential addresses and before foreign leaders - using rhetoric that presidential historians have said has no modern precedent. Trump has long alleged without evidence that Biden’s aides forged his signature with an autopen, and even put a framed photo of an autopen in for Biden’s portrait as part of a new presidential portrait series at the White House.

The GOP-led report claims the committee found serious gaps in how documents requiring the president’s signature were handled and that there were several instances in which the chain of custody was unclear, raising questions about how those documents were ultimately signed.

The report singles out one situation in which Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, authorized someone to use the autopen to grant pardons, according to testimony. In another case, the committee highlights the concerns of a DOJ ethics attorney who, in a memo, expressed uncertainty about whether Biden was made aware of a review that deemed some of those ultimately pardoned as “highly problematic.”

“In light of the former president’s cognitive deterioration and the cover-up from his inner circle, this ‘approval’ process calls into question the validity of all pardons reportedly granted by President Biden throughout his tenure,” the GOP majority’s report says.

Democrats dismissed these conclusions in their report, writing, “In reality, witnesses testified that all forms of clemency, including pardons, were issued with President Biden’s knowledge or authorization, and not a single witness could corroborate Republican claims that the autopen was used to issue an executive order, presidential memorandum, or any form of clemency without President Biden’s knowledge or authorization.”

The majority report goes to great lengths to attack Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, accusing him of playing a key role in what the report casts as a cover-up of Biden’s decline. The committee faults O’Connor’s conclusion in February 2024 that Biden was “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” and criticizes him for not administering a cognitive test. The report also attacks O’Connor for refusing to answer the committee’s questions, citing physician-patient confidentiality.

In a letter sent to the D.C. medical board Tuesday, the committee asks that O’Connor be investigated and that the board “impose discipline, sanction, or revocation of his medical license.” In its letter to Bondi, the committee requests that the Justice Department investigate O’Connor, along with other Biden aides.

In July, O’Connor’s lawyers said there were two key reasons O’Connor would not answer the committee’s questions: physician-patient privilege and because the DOJ was conducting a criminal investigation into the same topics being investigated by the committee, leaving O’Connor “no choice but to invoke his constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.”

“Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license, and would subject Dr. O’Connor to potential civil liability,” his lawyers wrote. “Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.”

Concerns about the quality of a White House physician’s assessment are not unique to Biden. In 2018, Trump’s White House physician, Ronny Jackson, said he told Trump “if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old” and praised Trump’s “incredible genes,” prompting outside physicians to question Jackson’s judgment and credibility.

Jackson also administered a cognitive test because of questions about Trump’s mental acuity. Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is used to detect early signs of mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Jackson gave Trump a perfect score, which Trump then mentioned on multiple occasions.

Trump’s doctors misled the public multiple times when the president contracted covid in the fall of 2020, before vaccines had become available. When Trump was hospitalized, one of his physicians, Sean Conley, said Trump was doing well and had no supplemental oxygen - a statement that he later had to retract. At one point, Trump’s condition was so severe that aides feared he would need to be placed on a ventilator.

Beyond O’Connor, the committee accuses a cadre of Biden aides of conspiring to cover up the then-president’s physical and cognitive decline. Biden and his aides have maintained that he was healthy throughout his presidency, pointing to detailed annual medical reports released by his physician, and have argued that even as he slowed physically, he was always able to carry out the duties of the presidency. Aides who testified before the committee repeated these assertions in their remarks.

Biden’s aides debated having him take a cognitive test to prove his fitness for office but decided against it. They have said that they were confident Biden would pass but that taking the test could raise new questions about his mental acuity, according to the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.”

In May, Biden said he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Last week, a spokesperson for Biden said he had completed a round of radiation therapy.

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Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.