Pro-energy group urges AG Bondi to probe Biden's autopen on crucial decisions that devastated industry

In light of the mounting evidence of significant executive actions with serious economic and national and global security implications being undertaken in President Biden’s name apparently without his knowledge by unelected officials, we respectfully request that you investigate whether former President Biden authorized the LNG pause, or whether any documentation reflecting the White House’s position was instead prepared or signed by staff,

the group wrote in a letter to Bondi, shared first with Fox News Digital

I cannot answer this from my constituents in Louisiana,

Johnson said he told Biden

This opinion is wrong. But even that erroneous opinion was clear that ‘(w)e emphasize that we are not suggesting that the President may delegate the decision to approve and sign a bill, only that, having made this decision, he may direct a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to the bill,

the memo said

And so I think it's a question that everybody in this room should be looking into, because certainly that would propose, perhaps criminal or illegal behavior if staff members were signing the president of the United States' autograph without his consent,

Leavitt continued

Biden's pardons at the end of his term certainly test whether there are any limits to the presidential pardon power,

O'Neill said

This dog will not hunt, ... It may be worthy of investigation by Congress, but the pardons are unlikely to be seriously questioned by the courts."

Turley added on X

I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble — who is running the country?’

Johnson said of the 2024 meeting

I didn’t do that,

the former president said in 2024, ... Johnson recounted during an interview with the Free Press’ Bari Weiss in January

The account of Speaker Johnson on how Biden seemed unaware of signing a major piece of legislation does suggest the use of a dead-hand power by staffers,

Turley wrote

You have asked whether, having decided to approve a bill, the President may sign it, within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution, by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to it, for example by autopen,

the opinion stated

Karoline Leavittpress Secretary

Was his illegal signature used without his consent or knowledge? And that's not just the president or me raising those questions,

Leavitt said on Monday

Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state,

Johnson said he told the president at the time

Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know,

he added

If an individual who has received a pardon is indicted, they would, most likely, assert pardon as an affirmative defense,

he added

Many of these were high-profile pardons, including for his own son, that Biden acknowledged publicly,

he added

The issue is authority, not the physical act of signing or an ink signature. As long as the President has authorized the use of the autopen, documents signed with an autopen are legally valid,

said Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor

Under the Constitution, pardons do not even need to be in writing,

Perlstein told Newsweek

This is consistent with the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel opinion on this issue. Trump or others who are challenging the pardons will have to establish that Biden did not authorize the autopen signatures or the pardons themselves,

he said

The President has the right to grant trusted members of his Cabinet the right to formally sign his name, meaning even if Biden's team used an auto signature, pardons would still be valid,

he said

In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime,

Trump said in his post