US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is investigating pardons issued by former President Joe Biden, including those granted to family members and death row inmates.

 

According to an internal email seen by Reuters, Ed Martin, the department’s pardon attorney, told staff he had been “directed to investigate” whether Biden was “competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.

An AutoPen, for the uninitiated, is a mechanical device that can mimic a person’s signature, a tool Biden reportedly used in office, much to the scepticism of Trump and his allies who’ve long argued it delegitimises presidential decisions.

While there’s no evidence Biden used an AutoPen for the pardons, Martin’s probe is centered on two main categories: Preemptive pardons Biden issued to five family members.

Commutations for 37 federal inmates, who were spared the death penalty in favour of life imprisonment.

Just days before he left office on Jan. 20, Biden pardoned his siblings—James Biden, Frank Biden, and Valerie Biden Owens—as well as their spouses. His son, Hunter Biden, received a pardon on Dec. 1 after pleading guilty to tax violations and facing gun-related convictions.

 

The U.S. Constitution gives presidents “plenary” or absolute power to issue pardons—a point Martin himself acknowledged at a May 13 press conference: “If you use the autopen for pardon power, I don’t think that that’s necessarily a problem,” he said, adding, “But I still felt the Biden pardons warranted scrutiny.”