A controversy over presidential pardons has emerged, placing former President Donald Trump at the center of a practice he has repeatedly criticized. Trump has been a vocal opponent of using an autopen—a machine that replicates a signature—for official documents, particularly targeting former President Joe Biden for its use. However, forensic document experts are now asserting that Trump’s latest batch of pardons, issued on November 7, also bear the hallmarks of being signed by an autopen.
The accusation stems from an analysis of the pardons posted to the Justice Department’s website. Two independent forensic document experts told The Associated Press that the signatures on several of the pardons, including those for former MLB player Darryl Strawberry and former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada, were identical. This is a key indicator of an autopen, as a person’s handwritten signature has natural, slight variations each time. Shortly after this analysis was reported, the Justice Department replaced the documents on its website, calling the initial posting a “technical error.”
This incident stands in stark contrast to Trump’s previous stance. He has publicly mocked Biden for using an autopen, even calling for such pardons to be voided. The House Oversight Committee, under Republican leadership, had previously issued findings criticizing the use of the autopen under Biden, stating that executive actions signed by the machine without proper documentation should be deemed void. The White House has firmly denied the recent allegations against Trump. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson stated that the president “signed each one of these pardons by hand as he does with all pardons,” dismissing the story as a media distraction from what she called “Joe Biden’s countless autopenned pardons.”
