By Jake Tapper, Annie Grayer, CNN Tue October 28, 2025
Former President Joe Biden experienced such “cognitive decline” while in office that it remains a serious question as to whether he was aware of the substance of the various pardons and commutations signed in his name via autopen, the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee asserted in a letter it sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging her to consider whether that clemency might be invalid and to take action for potential prosecution against some of Biden’s aides.
The committee “deems void President Biden’s executive actions that were signed using the Autopen, and the committee determines that action by the Department of Justice is warranted to address the legal consequences of that determination,” it wrote to Bondi in the letter released Tuesday morning.
The letter was made public alongside a 93-page report outlining the committee’s conclusions from its months-long investigation into Biden’s use of the autopen. It alleged the committee had found “a cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” and “no record demonstrating President Biden himself made all of the executive decisions that were attributed to him.”
Biden has publicly disputed that, saying he made all decisions as president and calling Republicans who have suggested otherwise “liars.”
To support its assertions, the committee report includes excerpts of interviews with 14 former senior Biden aides, and it released transcripts and video later Tuesday morning. Although the committee raised serious questions about the Biden administration’s process for awarding pardons, it did not cite any direct evidence that anyone other than Biden made the decisions that his staff later put into effect. Instead, the committee pointed to a lack of clear records indicating that Biden was the decision-maker. The panel did not subpoena Biden to testify in the probe.
Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the House Oversight committee, called the report a “sham investigation” in a statement, adding that “every White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States.”
“The testimonies also make it clear the former President authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen,” Garcia said while calling on House Republicans to reopen the government.
In their interviews, Biden aides defended the process they had in place for using the autopen and stated firmly that Biden made his own decisions.
Republicans have long raised questions about Biden’s mental state, but in releasing the report, the GOP-led committee seemed to suggest a path for continued impacts of its work.
The letter specifically asked that the Justice Department further investigate three top Biden White House aides who invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify to the committee: former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and Biden aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.
Invoking the Fifth Amendment is typically done to avoid answering specific questions. Though it can be perceived by the public as a way of avoiding accountability, the US Supreme Court has long regarded the right against self-incrimination as a venerable part of the Constitution and, in legal proceedings, tried to ensure that a witness’ silence not be viewed as evidence of guilt.
The Committee also wrote to the Board of Medicine for Washington, DC, requesting that it investigate whether O’Connor should be disciplined in any manner for “issuing misleading medical reports, misrepresenting treatments, failing to conform to standards of practice, or other acts of violation of District of Columbia law regulating licensed physicians.”
More:
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/10/28/politics/biden-autopen-investigation-house-oversight-final-report
