White House Counsel Flags Biden Pardons As Potentially Illegal, Demands DOJ and Congressional Investigation

The Trump White House Counsel is raising the alarm over what it describes as potentially illegal and unauthorized pardons issued during Joe Biden’s final days in office, calling for immediate investigations by the Department of Justice and Congress.

In a memo obtained Saturday, White House Counsel David Warrington urged Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to authorize the release of internal findings so they can be reviewed by investigators with the authority to conduct interviews.

“We believe that answering the questions above requires interviewing those involved,” Warrington wrote. “As the WHC does not have the authority to conduct interviews, we recommend that you approve making the information contained in this memorandum and the supporting materials available to entities that do have that power.”

At the heart of the matter: Biden’s unprecedented use of an autopen to mass-sign clemency orders—sometimes for thousands of individuals at a time—with no clear evidence he personally reviewed or approved the names. Internal staff memos from the prior administration indicated Biden delegated key pardon decisions to Kamala Harris and her staff, who used autopen machines to churn through signature pages.

Warrington’s memo directly challenges Biden’s public excuse to the New York Times that the autopen was necessary due to the large number of recipients. “This argument would make sense if, for example, President Biden was signing commutations or pardons for each individual,” the memo stated. “In reality… the December 2024 commutation of nearly 1,500 individuals required only one signature. The January 2025 commutation of nearly 2,500 individuals required only three.”

The White House Counsel noted further that Biden’s staff secretary admitted to being “unsure” if Biden had personally approved specific individuals. According to the memo, staffers could “add or subtract” names from clemency lists even after supposed authorization.

Even more disturbing, the documents indicate Biden never even read the warrant paperwork associated with the pardons. The use of vague, sweeping language also reportedly caused confusion among DOJ officials who were tasked with executing the orders.

The memo outlined a list of urgent questions that demand answers:

• If Biden personally made every clemency decision, why do his briefing books from December 2024 and January 2025 contain no real detail on who he was approving?

• If decisions were made by Biden, why did staff frequently wait days before informing anyone of them?

• Were aides to Jeff Zients and Bruce Reed sending out emails under their bosses’ names without their knowledge?

• If Biden was mentally fit, why did he require cheat sheets to remind him he had approved thousands of pardons—and even one for his own son?

• If an autopen authorization memo existed before Biden even took office, was his team already aware he was unfit to personally execute presidential duties?

The Trump administration’s legal team is now calling for full-scale investigations by Congress and the DOJ, including interviews with Biden’s former staff, Harris’ aides, and any other officials involved in the clemency process.

“This is not just about pardons,” one source familiar with the memo said. “This is about whether the last administration completely circumvented the law by pretending Joe Biden was signing things he didn’t even see.”

The memo stops just short of formally accusing Biden’s team of criminal conduct but makes clear that deception, misrepresentation, and possible abuse of the autopen system must be investigated immediately.