The Department of Justice has quietly closed its investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign official documents, and the outcome is leaving many frustrated. After months of speculation and questions about how the device may have been used during Biden’s presidency, the investigation ended without any criminal charges.
In other words, nothing came of it.
The probe began when Ed Martin, who was serving as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia at the time, launched an inquiry into whether Biden aides may have used the signature device without the president’s full knowledge. The investigation focused on whether executive orders, pardons, and other presidential documents were signed using the autopen during a period when Biden’s cognitive abilities were reportedly declining.
An autopen is a mechanical device that reproduces a person’s signature. Presidents have used it before for certain documents, but the concern surrounding Biden’s use centered on whether staffers may have operated the device independently rather than with direct presidential authorization.
According to reporting from the Washington Examiner, investigators ultimately struggled to build a criminal case. The matter was never presented to a grand jury, highlighting the difficulty prosecutors faced in trying to determine whether any laws had actually been broken.
The investigation was later wound down under Jeanine Pirro, the current U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. and a longtime ally of President Trump. Pirro’s office is expected to release additional information about the inquiry in the near future, though officials have not yet provided detailed public comments explaining the decision to close the case.
President Trump ordered the review back in June, directing the Justice Department to examine whether the autopen had been used to conceal what he described as Biden’s “cognitive decline.” Trump has argued repeatedly that some executive actions signed with the device should be considered invalid if Biden himself did not directly authorize them.
The controversy even made its way into the White House décor. In a pointed political jab, Trump reportedly replaced Biden’s portrait at the White House with the autopen device itself, highlighting his belief that the machine had effectively been doing the signing during the previous administration.
Biden, for his part, has rejected those claims outright. In a statement responding to the investigation earlier this year, he insisted that the decisions made during his presidency were his own.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
Despite the controversy and the political back and forth, prosecutors apparently concluded there was not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing. The investigation has now been closed, leaving lingering questions but no legal consequences.
For critics who believed the issue deserved a deeper examination, the result feels anticlimactic. The investigation that once generated significant political attention has ended quietly, with the Justice Department simply moving on.
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