Justice Department lawyers reportedly felt the former president didn’t properly vet those whose sentences he commuted.
According to an Axios report on Sunday, which cited internal emails and sources, former President Joe Biden’s own administration officials raised concerns about the process used to grant sweeping pardons near the end of his term.
Biden was widely criticized for granting clemency to his son, Hunter, despite previously stating he wouldn’t. Hunter Biden had previously admitted guilt to tax offenses and gun-related violations.
An Axios source stated, “There was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon – and they largely didn’t run it by the Justice Department to vet them.”
Many pardons were reportedly signed using an autopen, a machine that replicates a signature. Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, allegedly authorized the move, with his aide Rosa Po frequently emailing the authorizations.
Bradley Weinsheimer, a senior ethics attorney at the Justice Department, penned a critical memo in January, the day after Biden released thousands of individuals he described as non-violent drug offenders, according to Axios. Weinsheimer contended that Biden’s statement was “untrue, or at least misleading,” and included a list of violent offenders who were released.
In January, White House staff secretary Stef Feldman reportedly inquired about the use of the autopen, asking: “When did we get [Biden’s] approval of this?”
Biden later maintained that he made “every decision” himself and that the autopen was necessary to handle the large volume of documents. However, Axios reports that records suggest he only had to sign “a few documents for every large group of people he granted clemency.”
Axios reports that Biden ultimately pardoned 4,245 individuals, with over 95% of these decisions occurring in the final months of his presidency. At the time, the former president claimed the prosecution of his son was politically motivated.