Former US President Joe Biden said that he personally made all decisions on pardons and commutations that were issued at the end of his presidential term. He called President Donald Trump and other Republican Party officials “liars” for suggesting that his aides could have used an automatic fountain pen to sign without his knowledge. That’s what he’s about told in an interview with The New York Times.
“I made all the decisions,” – emphasized Biden, explaining that he instructed his employees to use a fountain pen that reproduces his signature on the relevant documents, because “we are talking about a lot of people.”
This is Biden’s first interview, in which he comments on the parallel investigations launched by the White House, the Justice Department and Congress into the pardon decisions made in the final weeks of his term, as well as the state of his mental acuity during that period.
Republicans in Congress are pushing to question former Biden aides under oath, which has led some of them to turn to their own lawyers. Some attorneys are reportedly advising their clients to refrain from public comment because of the risks of prosecution for perjury over even the slightest disagreement.
It will be recalled that on June 5, US President Donald Trump initiated an official investigation to establish whether all of Biden’s presidential documents were personally signed by him, and whether his aides did not use an automatic signature to hide possible health problems.
On March 17, Trump declared that the pardons granted by Joe Biden in the final days of his presidency are invalid and “have no further force or effect.” He also claimed that Biden was not aware of these decisions, and people who had this information “may have committed a crime.”
