NEWS: Trump’s probe into Biden unravels in real-time hypocrisy
The White House says Biden "auto-signed" orders, making them illegitimate ... now Trump's investigators are doing the same thing.
Bottom Line Up Front:
Donald Trump is claiming Joe Biden’s signature on official documents — like pardons — doesn’t count because he used an autopen machine. But the people investigating this “scandal”? They’re signing their own subpoenas with digital signatures. Seriously. You can’t make it up.
WHAT HAPPENED
House Oversight Chair James Comer is spearheading a congressional probe into President Biden’s use of the autopen (a standard practice to sign high-volume documents) to claim Biden was not mentally fit or in control of his administration. Trump himself has ordered an investigation, calling it one of the “most dangerous scandals in American history.”
The real target? Biden’s pardons. The Trump White House is reportedly exploring whether pardons for political allies or Trump critics, including like whistleblowers, can be invalidated because the president used an autopen.
But according to NBC News, now we know: Comer’s own investigation letters and subpoena notices were signed with — wait for it… — a digital signature. Metadata on every one of his 16 investigative letters shows his signature was added as a digital image.
In short: they’re investigating the former president for something they’re doing themselves…in realtime.
WHAT IT MEANS
Let’s me be blunt: this is not about stationary. I’ve served in two presidential administrations (including Trump’s first administration) where “auto-signing” was a quite common practice.
In reality, this whole ordeal is about whether the current administration can erase a former president’s decisions if they don’t like them. The end game here is terrifyingly clear. They want to create a legal loophole that allows them to roll back executive actions (including pardons) when they’re politically inconvenient.
Think about what that means for a moment. If someone received clemency for blowing the whistle on corruption? They could be re-prosecuted. If Biden used his authority to shield a political critic or grant relief to a persecuted group so that Trump couldn’t destroy them personally — like Liz Cheney? The White House could strip it away.
The probe into the Biden time itself is designed to silence. It’s part of a broader pattern we’ve seen, ranging from the criminalization of dissent, to the firing of analysts, to the intimidation of critics in the intelligence community.
Now the administration wants to criminalize the simple tools used by a former president so it can go after more private citizens.
WHAT’S NEXT
Don’t be fooled by the bureaucratic smokescreen. This is an assault on a past president’s authority and a dry run for reversing decisions Trump disagrees with, including decisions that protect his opponents.
It’s also an attempt to delegitimize Biden’s presidency by attacking the very ink his name is printed in.
Even still, there’s rich irony that would make Kafka proud. The White House is arguing that if Biden didn’t personally sign it, it’s not legitimate; meanwhile, Trump’s investigators are doing the same thing.
If that sounds like a dystopian double standard, that’s because it is.
Thank you Miles for continuing to support our democracy.
Thank you for this article. The hypocrisy of the Trump regime is astonishing.