House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) conduct a "comprehensive" investigation into former President Joe Biden's autopen use.

"Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides at the direction of the inner circle hid the truth about the former president's condition and fitness for office," the report said.

The report also detailed a "haphazard documentation process" for pardons made by Biden, which the committee argued left room for doubt over whether the former president made those decisions himself.

If the republicans get their "act" together, this should make it to the Supreme Court.

There would be much sorrow and jubilation. I am definitely hoping to jubilate.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/comer-unleashes-biden-demands-doj-probe-autopen-use-scathing-new-report

Nothing will happen

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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BVS? (Battered Voter Syndrome)

I sort of agree, but for this to get started, Congress must refer to the Department of Justice. This is the first real step. I was beginning to give up on Ag football, too. :-)

ETA - Where's Hope?

Every document that I have run across already has an 'X' on the sig line.

Why does Biden need an autopen?

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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Username doesn't fit.

IIIHorn said:

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Every document that I have run across already has an 'X' on the sig line.

Why does Biden need an autopen?

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If Biden was named after his daddy, signature would be, Xx

I dunno how this would work but could it result in discovery where the public gets to see things like how medical info?

The pardons won't be challenged because Biden verbally acknowledged them as well. There's nowhere in the constitution that says how they must be signed and documented. The court would grant wide deference to a president that won't dispute he pardoned them in office.

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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The uniparty thanks you for your defeatist propaganda.

That's where the popcorn comes in. Have to get all of the pardon participants on the same page about getting informed consent from Biden. A couple fail to do this (or seek a deal) and the cards come tumbling down. To me, it sounds like the inner circle was completely out of control at the end.

I doesn't even get to that point. Biden already said he authorized them. At that point it's over.

Teslag said:

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I doesn't even get to that point. Biden already said he authorized them. At that point it's over.

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What's sort of funny here, is that if the Biden position holds up, then it applies the same to Trump's claims of declassification of docs he had at M-A-L.

If it gets to SCOTUS, I think they will decide verbally consents and thoughts are valid, but not preferred. And the decision would come with a strong recommendation to zip some of these things up.

Tl;dr Comey is likely going to make the Executive even stronger by pushing this. Something Trump desires.

Teslag said:

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I doesn't even get to that point. Biden already said he authorized them. At that point it's over.

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In my mind he would have had to have made this declaration while still president, as after the fact he has no authority to validate them if they were not in effect knowingly authorized and executed by him. Without a chain of custody in the authorization process that is documented, what is the precedent? To assume they were all actually approved while he had the authority?

I think if you could clearly evidence one or more instances where he did not authorize the auto pen, then you could make the case that all should be tossed unless there was clear evidence they WERE authorized.

Unless you can spoil the batch, then the default has to be to presume they were authorized.

Not to be a cynic but.....

Ask to Conduct a Comprehensive Investigation = Nothing gets done

MouthBQ98 said:

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Teslag said:

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I doesn't even get to that point. Biden already said he authorized them. At that point it's over.

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In my mind he would have had to have made this declaration while still president, as after the fact he has no authority to validate them if they were not in effect knowingly authorized and executed by him. Without a chain of custody in the authorization process that is documented, what is the precedent? To assume they were all actually approved while he had the authority?

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He's already said he authorized them while still president. That's all the court will need. Presidents get wide deference on this. As they should.

Most likely you are correct, there's not enough to invalidate them thanks to having zero chain of custody, ironically.

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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Exactly.

This is political kabuki theater to get the base riled up and garner attention. But the time for this kind of stuff is long over.

Purely performative.

This is a waste of time and resources for Trump/Republicans. Sans a few geriatric old school dems not long for this world, the entire country knows Biden was advanced stage dementia and never actually running the country.

Those that vote D don't care. Not a smidge. Never will. So we'd go round and round to do what? Prove what everyone already knows? Slap some light sentences on a few staffers to maybe accept a plea?

Focus on who and what has to be exposed. Why hasn't an indictment on Mayorkas come down?

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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Maybe. But this needs to be brought fully to light to prevent it ever happening again.

All true. But people need to understand that Biden was actually not involved in the process at all. Some won't even believe it, but others will learn something out of it.

Can you imagine if the autopen authorized renovations at the White House? Democrats would be impeaching Trump again for that.

Except Trump is 100% cognizant and has the authority to declassify anything. No serious person contends that Biden was in control of his faculties. He has no idea who was even pardoned, and we all know that. Even if it cannot be proven in a court of law.

Republicans have to be better at getting their message out. It will take creativity, but throwing up your hands and saying "we just can't…" is unacceptable.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Some won't even believe it, but others will learn something out of it.

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Nope. Dems and learning does not compute. They get their talking points and march.

Republicans have pulled a lot of uninformed voters, especially minority voters, over the last few cycles. People are realizing that democrats are not the party of the working man. There are a lot of people who have come to the realization that we have two justice systems. Keep showing the way.

To me (disclaimer: not an attorney or "pardon" expert) the objective should be the preemptive nature of them. Seems like pardons should only be allowed after one has been convicted, not for anything they may have done. Ford set a horrible precedence and Biden took it to new levels.

Well, Biden didn't do anything. He pardoned Hunter. Someone else did the rest. And I agree on pre-emptive pardons.

Congress will probably try to change that before Trump leaves office because TRUMPPPP!

Even worse is that Ford didn't need to pardon Nixon. Nixon likely survives an impeachment trial on a variety of grounds, but the process of a trial was seen as too traumatic for the Country, so it made the point moot.

But that muddied the waters on not just pardons but presidential immunity and impeachments.

Interestingly enough, the cabal against Nixon was a prelude of what they launched against Trump.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Well, Biden didn't do anything. He pardoned Hunter. Someone else did the rest. And I agree on pre-emptive pardons.

Congress will probably try to change that before Trump leaves office because TRUMPPPP!

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You ain't changin nuthin about the pardon powers unless you want to amend the Constitution.

AgResearch said:

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Nothing will happen

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If we get enough Christians praying, it could.

There was no rule of law during the Biden administration and that needs to be rectified.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Well, Biden didn't do anything. He pardoned Hunter. Someone else did the rest. And I agree on pre-emptive pardons.

Congress will probably try to change that before Trump leaves office because TRUMPPPP!

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Trump must exercise the power and pardon every member of his family, his admin, Vance, etc.... The Dems will pursue them if they get power. Show me the man, I'll show you the crime. Thats how they roll.

Quote:

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Well, Biden didn't do anything. He pardoned Hunter. Someone else did the rest.

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I don't disagree with any of that. By "Biden" I meant the admin and whoever was running it under his name.

Logos Stick said:

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Ellis Wyatt said:

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Well, Biden didn't do anything. He pardoned Hunter. Someone else did the rest. And I agree on pre-emptive pardons.

Congress will probably try to change that before Trump leaves office because TRUMPPPP!

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Trump must exercise the power and pardon every member of his family, his admin, Vance, etc.... The Dems will pursue them if they get power. Show me the man, I'll show you the crime. Thats how they roll.

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Trump may have to pardon all of his voters, donors, friends, fans, etc.

flown-the-coop said:

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Even worse is that Ford didn't need to pardon Nixon. Nixon likely survives an impeachment trial on a variety of grounds, but the process of a trial was seen as too traumatic for the Country, so it made the point moot.

But that muddied the waters on not just pardons but presidential immunity and impeachments.

Interestingly enough, the cabal against Nixon was a prelude of what they launched against Trump.

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He didn't pardon him against an impeachment and Senate trial. He pardoned him against possible criminal indictment and trial.

Ag83 said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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Even worse is that Ford didn't need to pardon Nixon. Nixon likely survives an impeachment trial on a variety of grounds, but the process of a trial was seen as too traumatic for the Country, so it made the point moot.

But that muddied the waters on not just pardons but presidential immunity and impeachments.

Interestingly enough, the cabal against Nixon was a prelude of what they launched against Trump.

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He didn't pardon him against an impeachment and Senate trial. He pardoned him against possible criminal indictment and trial.

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Yep, I understand that. But Nixon had all sorts of defenses he could have raised. And you cannot ignore those and skip to criminal indictment for actions that COULD have been considered part of his official duties. Same with SCOTUS and Trump cases on immunity.

The questions the Dems caused to come up with Trump are the ones Ford avoided by pardoning Nixon.

We can have a separate discussion on immunity and pardons. The relevance here is that Biden as POTUS is provided HUGE discretion in what they consider official / not official and the burden is on the accuser to show that the action was NOT official.