President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is voiding all executive orders and other documents signed by former President Joe Biden using an autopen, claiming they were executed illegally without Biden's direct involvement.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that approximately 92 percent of documents signed during the Biden administration were done so with the mechanical signature device. "Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect," Trump wrote.

The president went further, threatening to charge his predecessor with perjury if Biden disputes the characterization. "Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury," Trump stated.

Trump framed the announcement as a response to what he described as illegitimate governance during the Biden administration. "The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him," he wrote. "I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally."

The White House rapid response social media account did not immediately comment on the announcement.

What Is an Autopen?

An autopen is a mechanical device designed to produce an exact copy of a person's handwritten signature. The machine holds a pen and traces a stored sample, allowing it to recreate signatures automatically. Unlike rubber stamps or digital signatures, an autopen physically writes the signature in ink on paper.

The device has been used in the White House since the Truman administration. U.S. presidents, including Trump himself, have employed autopens for various purposes over the years. Trump has previously stated that he uses the device "only for very insignificant documents," such as correspondence responding to the thousands of letters the White House receives.

The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum in 2005 confirming that use of the autopen is legal for presidential signatures on legislation and executive acts, provided it is authorized by the president. "The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law," the memo states.

Congressional Investigation Background

Trump's announcement follows a months-long House investigation into Biden's use of the autopen. In late October, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer presided over the release of a congressional report examining the matter.

The committee's findings indicated that 32 of 51 clemency warrants reviewed were signed using digital copies of Biden's signature, without contemporaneous documentation linking Biden to the decisions. Comer stated the findings raise "constitutional and criminal concerns" about the validity of executive actions taken during Biden's term.

The committee interviewed multiple senior Biden staffers as part of the probe, including Jeff Zients, who served as Biden's chief of staff. According to Comer, Zients confirmed some concerns about Biden's mental decline during the interview. The former chief of staff reportedly testified that he sought to tailor Biden's appearances to reduce stress and avoid long walks or stairs, and that Biden's "decision-making slowed" during the final stretch of his presidency.

Comer praised Trump's announcement on Friday. "The House Oversight Committee recently exposed how the Biden Autopen Presidency is one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history," he said. "As Americans witnessed President Biden's decline with their own eyes, Biden's inner circle sought to deceive the public, conceal his condition, and take unauthorized executive actions using the autopen—actions that are now invalid."

Legal Questions and Expert Analysis

Legal scholars have raised significant questions about whether Trump possesses the authority to invalidate his predecessor's actions that were signed by autopen.

Former Biden White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded to Trump's announcement by calling the president "the most criminal president in American history" and stating that Trump "does not have the legal power to do this."

Conservative legal commentator Ed Whelan noted on social media that while Trump is free to revoke executive orders regardless of how Biden signed them, "he doesn't have the same freedom with respect to 'anything else' (e.g., bills enacted by Congress, pardons) that Biden directed be signed by autopen."

Roger Porter, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and expert on presidential power, has noted that reversing past actions has become routine for every president. "It's the pendulum effect, if you will, in American government," Porter said in a recent interview. However, legal experts broadly agree that the president has no legal authority to overturn his predecessor's pardons.

During Biden's presidency, he signed 162 executive orders, in addition to hundreds of memoranda, proclamations and notices. Biden issued clemency to more than 4,200 people, making him the president with the most pardons and commutations in American history. Most were signed with a mechanical signature even though Biden was physically present in the White House.

Biden's Previous Denial

Biden has previously denied allegations that his staff made decisions without his knowledge or consent. In a June statement, the former president directly addressed the autopen controversy.

"Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency," Biden wrote. "I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false."

Biden, now 83 years old, stated that the autopen was used for clemency warrants because of the sheer volume involved. "We're talking about a whole lot of people," he told The New York Times in a phone interview over the summer. He called congressional Republicans and Trump "liars" for claiming he was disengaged from his presidential duties.

Biden notably used an ink pen to personally sign the document pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted on felony gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax evasion and tax fraud charges in September 2024. That pardon covered an entire decade of possible wrongdoing.

Trump's announcement came two days after two National Guard members were shot near the White House, with one later dying from her injuries. The suspect entered the U.S. in September 2021 as part of the evacuation flights arranged under the Biden administration during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. In his earlier social media post announcing immigration restrictions, Trump referenced the autopen, vowing to "terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden's Autopen."

It remains unclear which specific documents will be affected by Trump's declaration or how the administration plans to validate which signatures were personally executed by Biden versus those signed mechanically.