Internal White House documents reviewed by Just the News show aides to Joe Biden initially believed he was required to personally sign presidential actions such as pardons, but later shifted to allowing then-Vice President Kamala Harris to weigh in on clemency decisions while Biden increasingly relied on the autopen.
The records were compiled as part of a Trump White House review into Biden’s clemency process and use of automated signatures, raising new questions about whether Biden himself attended four key meetings in late 2024 and early 2025 that authorized sweeping pardons and commutations. Among the decisions examined were pre-emptive pardons for Biden family members and commutations for federal death row inmates.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration, “we did not find specific meeting notes that clearly mention or note that the President was present” for any of the four clemency meetings. One decision memo on commuting federal death row sentences was also found to be “unmarked,” with no final version showing Biden’s personal approval.
Investigators also found no contemporaneous briefing books or notes confirming Biden attended the four clemency meetings in December 2024 and January 2025, despite retroactive emails claiming he was present.
One December 10, 2024 draft memo from White House Counsel Edward Siskel recommended Biden commute the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole. The document offered Biden four options—approve, amend, reject, or discuss—but the archives could not locate any final signed version. All 37 commutations were nevertheless carried out.
The internal review also showed Biden’s December 2024 briefing books contained little substantive information on clemency, apart from a December 13 entry with reports on CARES Act home confinement commutations and talking points for a media interview. This gap raised concerns about whether Biden was fully briefed on the actions he claimed to approve.
Congressional testimony has shown that staffers managing the signature process often had limited direct contact with Biden. Some senior figures, including the president’s personal physician and Jill Biden’s chief of staff, invoked the Fifth Amendment in Oversight interviews.
