DOJ continues Biden autopen investigation into pardons and commutations

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is continuing its investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autoopen during the final months of his administration – focusing on pardons and commutations – although a senior official said Biden himself was unlikely to face criminal prosecution.

A senior DOJ official told Fox News that the automatic opening investigation was ongoing and not closed, adding that investigators were looking into clemency actions taken during the final months of the Biden administration.

The official also stressed, however, that the use of an automatic overture by a sitting president is “settled law.”

At issue is whether the automatic opening was used in violation of the law — particularly whether Biden personally approved every name included on the pardon and commutation lists.

A framed portrait shows former President Joe Biden’s signature and auto-opener along the “Presidential Walk of Fame” outside the Oval Office of the White House. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)

“These types of cases are difficult and questions of executive privilege come into play,” the official said.

What is also clear, the official said, is that the target of possible prosecution would likely not be Biden.

“It is difficult to imagine how [Biden] could be criminally liable for the pardon power,” the senior DOJ official said.

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Former President Joe Biden’s use of auto-open remains under investigation. (AP Photo)

The official noted that one reason the former president is unlikely to face charges stems from a 2024 Supreme Court decision that originally implicated President Donald Trump, the current sitting president, but would also apply to Biden.

“We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separate powers, the nature of presidential power requires that a former president be afforded some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his term in office,” the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States in 2024. “At least with respect to the president’s exercise of his principal constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute.”

Sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s team continues to review the White House’s use of the automatic opening, contradicting a recent New York Times report that the investigation had been suspended.

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President Donald Trump has pressed on consequences related to former President Joe Biden’s alleged use of auto-open. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

Trump has emphasized consequences related to the auto-open controversy, alleging on social media that his aides acted illegally in its use and raising the possibility of perjury charges against Biden.

Biden has rejected those claims, saying in a statement last year that he personally directed the decisions in question.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said. “I am the one who made the decisions regarding pardons, decrees, laws and proclamations. Any suggestion that I did not is ridiculous and false.”

The House Oversight Committee focused on Biden’s pardons, including five controversial pardons issued to members of his family in the final days of his presidency, citing what it described as a lack of “contemporary documentation” confirming that Biden directly ordered the pardons.

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The committee asked the DOJ to investigate “all of former President Biden’s executive actions, particularly clemency actions, to evaluate whether legal action should be taken to overturn any actions that the former President did not, in fact, take himself.”

Ashley Oliver of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

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