Trump revokes Biden's pardons signed with an automatic pen

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will revoke all documents, including pardons and commutations of sentences, that his predecessor Joe Biden signed using the autopen device.

He claims that the acts signed in this way have no legal effect and has instructed the recipients to treat them as such. It is not known, however, on which specific pardons Biden used the autopen.

The Autopen is used to accurately reproduce signatures on a large number of documents, and has been used by presidents of both major parties for a long time since the John F. Kennedy era.

Legal experts contacted by Reuters point out that the Constitution does not provide for a sitting president to override a predecessor's pardon across the board. According to them, the administration can only challenge an individual act, in court, where it must show that the previous president did not authorize a particular pardon.

Biden granted several pardons before leaving office, including to family members and non-violent drug offenders. In parallel, Trump has made heavy use of his own pardon power, granting dozens of pardons during his second term.

(reuters, sie)