A Senate Republican wants to build a paper trail of former President Joe Biden’s autopen usage with the end goal of calling more hearings, passing legislation or amending the Constitution to best address ‘a mentally incapacitated president.’
Sen. Eric Schmitt, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, is requesting special access under the Presidential Records Act to a trove of Biden-era documents and memos that chronicle his usage of an autopen.
In a letter to Secretary of State and Acting National Archivist Marco Rubio exclusively obtained by Fox News, Schmitt argued that creating a paper trail of key directives made toward the end of his presidency would help in ‘deciding which legislative remedy is most appropriate.’
‘In particular, the increased use of the autopen to sign pardons, executive orders, and other documents as his Presidency progressed became a poignant symbol of President Biden’s mental decline and has created questions about the validity of those orders and pardons if President Biden did not direct the use of the autopen,’ he wrote.
Schmitt requested access to a slew of documents, including memos about procedures for usage of the autopen, who was granted authority to use the autopen and emails from staff authorizing or requesting authorization for autopen usage.
He also requested access to all White House records after Nov. 1, 2024, that refer or relate to presidential pardons; that prioritize briefing books, memos and decision memos for pardons; and, eventually, access to all White House records after Nov. 1.
‘With that information, the subcommittee will be better positioned to ensure that any potential proposed amendment will be sufficiently comprehensive so as to address any plausible contingency concerning a mentally incapacitated President,’ Schmitt wrote.
‘It would be challenging enough to amend the Constitution once — much less more than once if it then subsequently turned out not all contingencies around presidential incapacity were adequately considered.’
Schmitt’s letter comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Biden’s alleged mental decline while in office and how the autopen could have played a central role in his inner circle’s alleged attempt to skirt the Constitution while continuing to carry out the duties of the office.
It also explicitly mentions the closed-door, transcribed hearing with Biden’s former director of the Domestic Policy Council, Neera Tanden, conducted by the House Oversight Committee this week.
A source told Fox News Digital that during the transcribed interview, which lasted five hours, Tanden testified she had ‘minimal interaction with President Biden’ in her role as staff secretary and that to obtain autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of Biden’s inner circle.
She said during the interview she was not aware of what actions or approvals happened between the time the memo was sent out and returned with approval.
However, Tanden’s opening statement, shared with Fox News Digital by her lawyer, Michael Bromwich, said that, as staff secretary, she was responsible for ‘handling the flow of documents to and from the President’ and that she was authorized to direct that autopen signatures be ‘affixed to certain categories of documents.’
‘We had a system for authorizing the use of the autopen that I inherited from prior Administrations,’ Tanden said. ‘We employed that system throughout my tenure as Staff Secretary.’
She was later named director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council and said she was no longer responsible for the flow of documents and was no longer involved in decisions related to the autopen.
‘I would note that much of the public discussion on the subject matter of this hearing has conflated two very different issues: first, the president’s age and second, whether President Bident was in command as President,’ she said. ‘I had no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question his command as President. He was in charge.’
Schmitt requested that access to the swathe of memos and communications be granted no later than July 16.
‘It is important for this subcommittee to have a clear picture of President Biden’s decision-making capacity at the end of his presidency and to know the extent to which members of his inner circle possibly usurped the President’s decision-making authority,’ he wrote.
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
