Attorney General Pam Bondi is apparently hopping aboard a conspiracy theory-driven effort to undo parts of Joe Biden’s presidency because he, like many presidents, used a machine to automate his signature on documents.
“My team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons,” Bondi said in a social media post Tuesday, tagging Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) as she did so.
Comer chairs the House Oversight Committee, which published a report Tuesday claiming that Biden’s use of autopen suggests he was mentally unfit for office and that, therefore, his executive actions can be voided.
Comer himself has been caught having staffers digitally sign legal documents on his behalf — in some cases on letters and subpoenas sent in furtherance of his investigation into Biden for the same behavior.
President Donald Trump has also used an autopen.
Back in March, when Trump first started pushing the conspiracy theory, legal experts told NPR it was a “nonstarter.”
“The argument that the pardon fails because it was signed by an autopen fails at the get-go, because there’s no requirement that the pardon even be signed,” Jay Wexler, a professor of constitutional law at Boston University School of Law, told the outlet.
According to NPR, presidents dating back to Thomas Jefferson have relied on the technology, which was patented in 1803.