Donald Trump’s Justice Department is digging into former president Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons—targeting not just who he pardoned, but how he signed them, according to Reuters.
Ed Martin, the department’s pardon attorney, told staff he had been “directed” to review pardons granted to Biden’s family members and 37 federal inmates who were spared the death penalty, according to an internal DOJ email obtained by the publication.
The move would potentially open the way for a radical makeover—which would, if MAGA fever dreams come true, fill up federal death row and allow for investigations into and prosecutions of Hunter Biden, his uncles, and other Trump boogeymen.
Martin—whose praise of a “Nazi sympathizer” scuppered his nomination for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia—reportedly wrote an email, saying that he wanted to find out whether the former president “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
An autopen is a mechanical device used to replicate signatures. MAGA figures have posited a conspiracy theory that Biden did not call the shots during his presidency, claiming someone—or several people—yielding an autopen did.
Martin told ABC News during a press conference on May 13 that he would “scrutinize” Biden’s pre-emptive pardons.
Biden pardoned his son Hunter in November after he pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges. His pardon drew bipartisan criticism.
The then-president also pre-emptively pardoned his brothers James and Frank and his sister Valerie Biden Owens. Their respective spouses were also shielded.
In delivering the pardons, Joe Biden cited a desire to shield family members from future politically motivated prosecutions. But the MAGA official blasted that justification.
“They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly. So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did,” Martin said in April.
He said at the time that he was already looking into the matter.
“If they’re null and void, I’m not sure how that operates, but I can tell you we’ve had already, I’ve had in my current position, or my position as U.S. Attorney, we had been taking a look at some of the conduct surrounding the pardons and the Biden White House,” he said.
After Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 inmates to life in prison in December, Trump declared his intent to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment for violent offenders.
When he returned to the White House, Trump issued an executive order ending the federal moratorium on executions and directed the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty in applicable federal cases.
Additionally, Trump’s “Project 2025” policy agenda outlines plans to expand the death penalty to include crimes such as child rape and drug trafficking.
In the same press conference, Martin suggested there was no issue with the use of an autopen. “If you use the autopen for pardon power, I don’t think that that’s necessarily a problem,” he said. His new move seems to be an attempt to get round that.
Legal experts point out that the U.S. Constitution grants the president broad clemency powers, and there is no requirement for a handwritten signature on pardons.
A 2005 Department of Justice memo supports the use of autopen for signing official documents, stating that the president may direct a subordinate to affix his signature using such a device. However, it is not known if Biden even used the device for pardons.
The investigation adds fuel to ongoing attacks from Biden’s critics, particularly those aligned with Trump, who have increasingly questioned the former president’s mental acuity—especially in the wake of the damning book Original Sin by journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper.
The inquiry comes amid heightened scrutiny of Biden’s health and decision-making, particularly after his cancer diagnosis and mounting questions from within the Democratic Party about his fitness for office during his final year in the White House.
Martin’s email did not state who instigated the probe, or exactly which of Biden’s family members will be investigated.
Martin was Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, but his Senate confirmation collapsed amid controversy over his links to a convicted January 6 rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli—described by federal prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer known for racist and antisemitic rhetoric.
Martin had publicly praised him during an awards ceremony at Trump’s Bedminster golf club in August 2024.
Martin described Hale-Cusanelli as “an extraordinary man, an extraordinary leader” and expressed a desire for America to “hear more from Tim Hale because he’s extraordinary.”
He later claimed he was unaware of Hale-Cusanelli’s extremist views at the time of the event, stating: “At the time, I didn’t know it.”
Despite his apology, the incident contributed to bipartisan opposition to Martin’s nomination, leading President Trump to withdraw it on May 8. Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was then installed as the interim U.S. attorney, on May 14.
Critics have questioned Martin’s suitability for a high-profile federal role. He graduated from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1998 and previously worked for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri, as well serving briefly as president of the conservative campaign group the Eagle Forum, which was founded by Phyllis Schlafly. That lasted less than a year and ended in a bitter lawsuit brought by the majority of the group’s board and among others Sclafly’s daughter.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told the Daily Beast that the probe is justified, given Biden’s condition before he left office.
“The American people deserve to know the extent to which unelected staffers and an autopen acted as a proxy president due to the incompetence and infirmity of the previous president,” Fields said in a statement.
“President Trump was elected to restore the integrity and transparency of the office, and answering the question of who was actually running this country for four years is well within the president’s rights.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment. A Biden spokesperson has not responded to a request for comment.
