Remember the Biden Autopen Investigation? There's Been an Update...and It's Not Good

We’re involved in military actions in Iran, including the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei. We’re also sourcing oil and minerals from Venezuela, Kristi Noem has been dismissed, and the fate of the SAVE Act remains uncertain. With the 2026 midterms approaching, these issues often get overlooked, and the results can be unfavorable. The investigation into Biden's autopen use has concluded, with the Justice Department quietly ending it, supposedly due to the lack of a suitable criminal statute to pursue charges 

 Federal prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office are dropping a criminal probe into whether former President Joe Biden and his aides unlawfully used an autopen to issue pardons, a person briefed on the matter told CBS News. 

Two sources confirmed the existence of the probe, with one telling CBS News that the matter has since been closed because prosecutors were never able to find a legal hook to be able to pursue the matter further. CBS News has not determined precisely when the case ended. 

Last June, President Trump ordered an investigation into whether the Biden administration used an autopen machine to sign key presidential documents like pardons — months after Mr. Trump had claimed his predecessor's pardons were illegitimate. 

Mr. Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi and the White House counsel in a memo to probe what he claimed was a "conspiracy" to "abuse the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline." 

The order cited a number of executive actions by Biden, including pardons and judicial appointments, and argued "there are serious doubts as to the decision making process and even the degree of Biden's awareness of these actions being taken in his name."  

It suggested that if Biden's advisers "secretly used the mechanical signature pen," it would "have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions." 

So, what happens now? Well, for starters, questions will linger since we know Joe Biden was mentally incapable of doing the job, especially in his final year in office. The Rube Goldberg way of deciding pardons and commutations, for example, was especially eye-opening, as the then-White House Counsel’s office seemed unaware of who was actually under consideration. It was a circus, and the emails bear that out.  

So, just because the DOJ gave up, doesn’t mean independent reporters will stop digging.