The GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, declaring that pardons and commutations signed by former President Joe Biden using an autopen device should be considered void due to questions about his cognitive fitness at the time of signing.
The committee’s final report on its investigation into Biden’s use of the autopen technology raises serious concerns about whether the 82-year-old former president understood the substance of the clemency actions bearing his signature. Republicans are now urging the Justice Department to investigate whether some of Biden’s aides should face potential prosecution for their roles in the process.
According to the committee, Biden’s documented cognitive decline during his final months in office calls into question the validity of executive clemency granted through automated signature technology. The report comes as Biden faces renewed scrutiny over his mental and physical fitness after his office announced in May that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had metastasized to bone.
The autopen device allows presidents to sign documents without being physically present, using a mechanical or digital reproduction of their handwritten signature. While presidents have used such technology for routine correspondence, the committee argues that its application to presidential pardons raises constitutional questions when combined with concerns about the signer’s mental capacity.
Biden’s health became a focal point during the 2024 presidential campaign after his halting debate performance against Republican candidate Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. The former president subsequently withdrew from the race, telling ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos it was “a bad episode” and that he was exhausted.
Questions about Biden’s cognitive abilities persisted through his final months in office. Several books by reporters claimed Biden experienced cognitive decline during his presidency, allegations the former president refuted during a May appearance on “The View.” Biden stated there was nothing to sustain such claims.
The former president’s medical history reveals a pattern of age-related conditions. According to Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s longtime physician, the president was being treated for multiple conditions, including non-valvular atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies, spinal arthritis, and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy in both feet during his time in office.
During Biden’s final presidential physical on Feb. 28, 2024, O’Connor noted that Biden had begun using positive airway pressure therapy for sleep apnea symptoms. The doctor described Biden at that time as a healthy and robust 81-year-old male who remained fit to execute presidential duties.
Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis came on Friday, May 16, 2025, after he reported increasing urinary symptoms the previous week. A spokesperson confirmed that a small nodule was discovered during a routine physical examination at a hospital in Philadelphia. The cancer was characterized by a Gleason score of 9, grade group 5, indicating an aggressive form of the disease.
Dr. Chris George from Northwestern Medicine, who is not involved in Biden’s care, explained that when prostate cancer spreads to the bones, it is not considered curable but is very treatable and controllable. George indicated that hormonal treatment would likely be the best option and that Biden’s quality of life over the next year could be reasonably good, though any baseline frailty or cognitive dysfunction might worsen.
The cancer diagnosis prompted an outpouring of support from political figures across party lines. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he and First Lady Melania Trump were saddened to hear the news and extended their warmest wishes to the Biden family. Former Vice President Kamala Harris stated that Biden is a fighter and would face the challenge with strength and resilience.
Former President Barack Obama credited Biden for spearheading efforts to reduce cancer deaths through the Cancer Moonshot initiative, which Biden led starting in 2016 and relaunched in 2022 with the goals to cut the cancer death rate by at least half by 2047, preventing more than four million cancer deaths, and to improve the experience of people living with and surviving cancer. Biden’s advocacy for cancer research took on personal significance after his eldest son, Beau, died from brain cancer in 2015.
Biden left office in January as the oldest serving president in U.S. history. He has largely remained out of public view since departing the White House, making few public appearances. His first interview after leaving office came in May 2025 with the BBC, where he acknowledged that the decision to step down from the 2024 race was difficult.
The House Oversight Committee’s letter to Bondi, accompanying its final report “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House” released on October 28, 2025, marks the latest Republican effort to scrutinize Biden’s final months in office and raises unprecedented questions about the intersection of presidential health, executive clemency powers, and the use of signature technology.
The report cites what it calls “a lax chain of command” for executive actions signed by autopen without documented presidential approval and recommends that thousands of pardons and commutations lacking clear authorization be declared “void and of no further force or effect.”
