On his way out the door in January, then-President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned five of his own relatives, along with several former federal officials and the members of the House select committee that investigated the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Or did he?
According to President Donald Trump, those pardons did not really happen. "The 'Pardons' that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen," Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday night. "In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!"
Contrary to what Trump seems to think, presidents have no authority to override their predecessors' acts of clemency, and the use of an autopen does not render presidential pardons invalid. In other words, Trump's social media rant cannot undo what Biden did, allowing the criminal investigations that the pardons were aimed at blocking. But it does suggest that Trump, despite his intermittent attempts to assure us that he won't use his presidential powers to punish his political opponents in the guise of criminal justice, would like very much to do exactly that.
