The Oversight Project is unleashing a new campaign to urge the FBI to declare transgender ideology, motivated violence, and extremism as domestic terrorism — and Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, believes the move couldn’t be more necessary.

“It’s a terrible and growing sustained trend in American life right now. The transgender ideology-inspired violence and extremism is now domestic terrorism,” Howell tells BlazeTV host Jill Savage on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”

To best explain the phenomena, Howell believes one must “go back 10 years.”

“When then-candidate Trump was running for president, one of his chief criticisms of then-President Obama was that Obama refused to say the words ‘radical Islamic extremism.’ So Trump took him to task over and over again,” Howell explains.

According to Howell, Trump was essentially making the case “that if you can’t define the enemy, you cannot defeat the enemy.”

“President Trump was right then, but now there’s another enemy on the scene. And it’s beyond obvious that transgender ideology is inspiring a very specific type of domestic terrorism,” he says.

This has been made abundantly clear via recent school shootings and, even more recently, through the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“My colleague Roger Severino has an estimate out there: 50% of school mass shootings over the last 10 years have come from transgender ideologically motivated individuals. These are people who believe that if you do not affirm their gender identity or whatever their delusions are, that you are harming them physically, that it is a violent event,” he explains.

“Therefore, in their minds, their illogical and mentally ill minds, they can justify their own violence against others,” he says, adding, “That is a specific form of domestic terrorism that we’re seeing emerge, and it is time for the government to diagnose this.”

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CONFIRMED: Biden's DOJ was in PANIC over legality of 'autopen pardons'

Brand-new evidence indicates that Biden’s DOJ knew that the autopen pardons were legally flawed, and internal emails show that even his own lawyers raised alarms.

“So I’m a little biased here, of course, but this is a big one. It is the first written, black-and-white evidence of disagreement in the senior-most levels of the Biden camp as it related to the autopen pardon spree,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell tells BlazeTV hosts Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”

An email from a top official at the DOJ went out the day after the 2,500-plus commutations.

“He goes off on Saturday morning, outlining all the reasons why these are not enforceable commutations. They make no sense. They need further direction from the White House — read between the lines there: from the president and not an autopen,” Howell explains.

“And moreover, that the actual interpretation of the very vague thing that Biden allegedly announced would apply to — guess what: a lot of violent criminals. And that it did. And so in Biden’s grand, you know, commutation of 2,500-plus, caught up in there were people who shot cops, who killed witnesses, who were kingpins that are now back on the streets for the most part,” he continues.

“Silver lining: Some of them are still in federal prison because he shortened their sentences, but there’s still some are serving it out. Trump could refuse to release them,” he adds.

Peterson, while not exactly shocked, still can’t believe America really went through a time like this.

“So we really did have probably as bad, or worse, of a case, of any time in American history, a president who was dysfunctional sitting there in that office with these clowns around him.”

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DOJ exposes 'black and white evidence' that Biden admin knew autopenned pardons were legally flawed

The Oversight Project obtained damning internal emails this week from the Justice Department revealing a high-level understanding in the Biden administration that the autopenned commutations issued on Jan. 17 in the former president's name were legally flawed.

In addition to showcasing former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer's legal concerns, the emails provided by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin's office reveal that the Biden administration apparently misled the nation about the violent criminal nature of the individuals who received commutations.

'You should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading.'

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "This represents the first written black and white evidence of fundamental disagreement in the Biden camp as it relates to the pardon strategy writ large."

"Obviously, this is particularized to the warrants for the commutations of people they never should have let out of jail — but it's the senior-most career lawyer in the DOJ, like [Merrick] Garland's top guy, basically saying, 'WTF are you guys doing? This is illegal,'" said Howell.

Howell suggested further that the potentially unlawful nature of the commutations is cause to keep imprisoned those whose sentences were commuted and who are scheduled to be released.

For those felons who received clemency and are no longer behind bars, the Oversight Project president said, "They should rearrest them."

A Jan. 17, 2025, statement attributed to Biden characterizes the recipients of the commutations as felons "convicted of non-violent drug offenses."

The emails obtained by the Oversight Project reportedly show that Weinsheimer, a 34-year department veteran, took issue with this apparent lie, noting that "in the communications about the commutations, the White House has described those who received commutations as people of non-violent drug offenses. I think you should stop saying that because it is untrue or at least misleading."

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

"I do not think it is close to accurate to describe all the clemency recipients as those convicted of non-violent drug offenses," apparently added the former DOJ official.

'I have no idea if the President was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions.'

The 2,490 federal inmates who received the commutations are a motley crew of thugs, including murderers and violent drug dealers.

Among them:

Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne, whose drug-trafficking offenses led to the death of a police officer;
Russell McIntosh, a thug who gunned down a woman who threatened to expose his drug enterprise along with her 2-year-old child;
Adrian Peeler, sentenced for conspiracy to commit murder involving the slaying of an 8-year-old witness and his mother; and
Plaze Anderson, a former high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples who was personally involved in two murders, an attempted murder and kidnapping, and obstruction of justice.

Weinsheimer added that based on limited review, the DOJ identified 19 inmates under consideration for clemency who were "highly problematic," as that list included "violent offenders, including those who committed acts of violence during the offense of conviction, or who otherwise have a history of violence such that it is misleading to suggest they are non-violent drug offenders," the email showed.

Sixteen of those 19 problematic felons received grants of clemency in Biden's name, and their commutations were characterized as "progress towards justice" by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I have no idea if the President was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions," Weinsheimer wrote. "The Department was largely excluded from the process, which we otherwise opposed."

The emails revealed that not only were the commutations opposed internally and not as advertised — they were likely unlawful.

Blaze News has reached out to Weinsheimer and the ACLU for comment.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Three clemency warrants were apparently issued on Jan. 17. The second of the three warrants awarded clemency to criminals for "offenses described to the Department of Justice."

Weinsheimer and others at the DOJ seemingly had trouble making heads or tails of the warrant and its legality, as no offenses were actually described.

The emails show a fight to get a list of the criminals' offenses — specifically those for which they were receiving commutations — amid mounting questions from courts, congressional staff, and the criminals' families.

'Because no offenses have been described to the Department from the President, the commutations do not take effect.'

In a Jan. 18 email to his DOJ colleagues at the Pardon Attorney's Office as well as to the White House Counsel's Office, Weinsheimer noted, "I think the language 'offenses described to the Department of Justice' in the warrant is highly problematic and in order to resolve its meaning appropriately, and consistent with the President’s intent, we will need a statement or direction from the President as to how to interpret the language."

— (@)

Weinsheimer suggested that the "clearest and least problematic way" of curing the apparent legal error was for Biden to explain his meaning and to provide a "list as to each inmate listing the offenses that are covered by the commutation."

The DOJ official identified three other ways to deal with the apparent legal error.

The DOJ could interpret the warrant to apply to "all federal offenses for which the inmate is under sentence" — an interpretation the Bureau of Prisons was reportedly likely to use. Weinsheimer warned, however, that such an interpretation would likely result in the commutations of sentences for violent felons, which Biden may not have wanted, and would render the qualifying language "superfluous."

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Alternatively, the DOJ could interpret "offenses described to the Department" on the basis of "the U.S. Sentencing Commission Spreadsheets" — the nature and contents of which are presently unclear. According to the emails, Weinsheimer again expressed concern, suggesting that "it is a guess as to what is meant by the warrant language, and [that interpretation] goes beyond the four corners of the warrant, something we do not normally do."

The final way Weinsheimer identified was not to act on the commutations: "Because no offenses have been described to the Department from the President, the commutations do not take effect."

'It's time for legal action based on autopen.'

Weinsheimer noted further that "describing offenses to the Department is a condition precedent to the commutations being effective, and without description, they do not take effect. I have no idea what interpretation the incoming [Trump] Administration will give to the warrant, but they may find this interpretation attractive, as it gives effect to the language but does not go beyond the four corners of the warrant."

The Oversight Project noted that while "pardoning via category is already an illegal delegation of a nondelegable power," that Weinsheimer email "illustrates that the government officials charged with executing the president's delegated orders on January 17, 2025, Warrant 2 had no idea what the president actually ordered."

Howell told Blaze News that the revelations in the emails provide the administration and lawmakers with an "angle to attack."

Howell said that President Donald Trump, who has already declared all of the autopen pardons null and void, can now say, "We're not honoring these commutations. You know who agrees with us? Biden's DOJ."

"Again, for the first time, we have written evidence of the disagreement," said Howell. "So there's no reason to sit around and wait. It's time for legal action based on autopen."

Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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'Democrats clearly weren't prepared': Blaze News contributor schools libs on border crisis in fiery hearing

The Committee on Homeland Security's Wednesday hearing on the role of non-governmental organizations in the immigration crisis erupted into a fiery partisan clash.

Oversight Project president and Blaze News contributor Mike Howell stood up against Democratic lawmakers, who repeatedly sought to derail the hearing with unscheduled procedural votes.

'Congressman Thompson was an emotional hypocrite.'

The pushback began with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) interrupting Howell's opening testimony to call for a recorded vote to declare his comments irrelevant to the hearing's topic.

Howell's opening remarks laid into Democrat lawmakers for fueling violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He claimed that many of the NGOs behind the Biden administration's immigration crisis are now behind the anti-ICE movement.

The Republican majority ultimately voted to allow Howell to proceed. However, it did not stop Democrats from introducing repeated roadblocks by pushing motions to subpoena other potential witnesses.

— (@)

The frequent interruptions hindered the proceedings, and most Democrats did not use their time to ask the witnesses questions; instead, they delivered monologues.

Howell described the hearing as a "mess."

He told Blaze News, "Congressman Thompson was an emotional hypocrite. He didn't want me to explain how his own members' calls for violence were predictably leading to violence. Remember, this is the man who chaired the January 6 committee. He tried getting me kicked out, and on the theory my testimony wasn't relevant, then he and all Democrats proceeded to drone on for hours about completely irrelevant topics."

Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Toward the end of Wednesday's hearing, Howell engaged in a tense exchange with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), who is not a committee member but had requested to sit in on the session.

Ansari used her questioning time to try to challenge Howell, but it spectacularly backfired.

She claimed that one ICE detention center was mistreating immigrants.

"I spoke with more than a dozen women there who were desperate, devastated about the conditions that they're living in, facing significant harassment. They described a situation where one of the staff members literally forced them outside to march outside in 110-degree Arizona heat, marching around for over two hours, yelling at them, 'This is the price of the American dream.' This is disgusting," she stated.

Ansari then turned to ask Howell so-called "yes or no" questions.

"Do you support this type of treatment of human beings?" she asked.

Howell replied, "I'm sorry; I wasn't listening. All the other Democrats haven't asked a question, so I kind of wasn't paying attention. Can you restate it?"

Ansari, clearly taken aback, repeated her question.

"For illegal aliens to be detained throughout their immigration proceedings? Yes," Howell responded.

Ansari interrupted, "To be treated that way?"

"I'm not taking your word for it," Howell declared.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.). Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Ansari moved on from the topic to question Howell about oversight authority, claiming that lawmakers are permitted to visit ICE detention facilities. Howell disagreed.

"You, as an individual member, do not have oversight authority," he explained. "Oversight authority, by the rules of the House, flows through the full House to the chairman, and that, right now, is held by [Republicans]. So the statute that you cite is going to end up with more Democrats clogging our jails. I want to keep you out of jail," Howell said.

Ansari attempted to catch Howell off guard regarding his views on the Epstein files, suggesting that he had reversed his stance on their release and was now echoing Trump's claims that it was a Democrat hoax. But Howell fired back that Ansari had gotten her facts wrong.

"What did I say?" Howell asked. "What have I parroted about it being a hoax?"

"You said something false. I'm asking you to cite what you said, which is clearly false because I've not said what you said," Howell replied. "My answer is written in an op-ed in TheBlaze, which you can read."

"You are lying to the American people in your misstatements. You just told a lie in this committee room. I'm trying to clear up the record," Howell continued.

"I think that the public deserves way more transparency than we've got. I've written that."

"Bring the receipts. You're lying, and everybody knows it," Howell remarked.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) applauded Howell's takedown. He wrote in a post on X, "Democrats clearly weren't prepared for @MHowellTweets."

— (@)

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Desperate Democrats disrupt hearing while Blaze Media writers expose NGOs' role in immigration nightmare

A tense Wednesday congressional hearing exposed how nongovernmental organizations contributed to the Biden administration's immigration crisis, profiting off of American taxpayers and fueling an invasion that led to trafficking and exploitation.

The Committee on Homeland Security's hearing, "An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis," was a part of "a years-long investigation by the committee into whether NGOs used taxpayer dollars to facilitate illegal activity during the Biden-Harris administration."

'What was allowed to happen to these children is truly one of the largest humanitarian crises of our lifetime.'

Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas, Oversight Project president and Blaze News contributor Mike Howell, and GUARD Against Trafficking president and co-founder Ali Hopper provided their testimony to lawmakers, highlighting the horrors of child trafficking and detailing how NGOs' well-funded services incentivized widespread illegal immigration.

— (@)

Tension escalated almost immediately during the hearing, as Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) interrupted Howell's testimony, calling for a recorded vote to deem the witness' statements irrelevant to the hearing's topic.

While the Republican majority voted to allow Howell to proceed, the hearing was frequently interrupted and slowed down by the Democratic minority initiating unscheduled procedural votes. They subsequently accused the chairman of breaking the rules when these votes prompted him to repeatedly suspend the hearing temporarily to give lawmakers time to return to the chamber to cast their votes.

Rosas stated during his opening testimony,"Ultimately, the goal of these NGOs was to get people to their desired destination within the United States and help them settle in, even though their legal status was far from being secured."

"By having this guaranteed help once they reached U.S. soil, illegal aliens had greater incentive to put their lives in danger by traversing through the Darien Gap and cartel-controlled territory in Mexico," he continued. "One shelter in El Paso told me in 2023 around 80% of the women who came to them had been raped, many times in front of their children. This highlights that despite the NGOs having the stated goal of helping these people, their 'help' ends up harming the people who used their services. Yes, they made it to the U.S., but at what cost?"

Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.). Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Several Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), took issue with Rosas mentioning a well-known Catholic organization as one of the many NGOs that used taxpayer funds to facilitate illegal immigration.

Correa told Rosas to "be careful" with his testimony, stating, "I'm a Catholic. I'm kind of disappointed in that."

"Why?" Rosas asked.

Correa replied that the group does "good work."

— (@)

Howell highlighted how the same NGOs that aided the previous administration's border crisis are now attempting to hinder President Donald Trump's deportation efforts.

Howell said in a statement to Blaze News before the hearing, "The Biden administration funneled billions of dollars through nonprofits and contractors for the sole purpose of facilitating the invasion into the United States. Now many of those same actors are on the forefront of the resistance to the lawful consequence of illegal immigration: deportation."

"As the Democratic Party continues to promote violence and illegal resistance to lawful enforcement, it is critically important that consequences are imposed," Howell said. "Congress has a role in conducting oversight of the money that was spent on their behalf for these purposes. These organizations should continue to be subject to intense scrutiny for their indispensable role in one of the darkest chapters in American history."

Oversight Project president and Blaze News contributor Mike Howell. Image Source: Homeland Security Committee

Hopper informed Blaze News that she intended to bring attention to "the heartbreaking details of the crisis and exploitation that occurred to unaccompanied alien children (UACs) under the disastrous policies of the Biden-Harris administration."

"Through our direct interviews with unaccompanied alien children (UACs), incarcerated human traffickers, cartel members, and whistleblowers, I'm going to provide specific details of the horrors these children experienced throughout the smuggling and trafficking process," Hopper said. "I will highlight the role NGOs played — how they became the middleman in a humanitarian pipeline of children that was exploited by cartels and obscured by federal contracts."

"What was allowed to happen to these children is truly one of the largest humanitarian crises of our lifetime," Hopper stated.

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WATCH: Blaze Media to testify before Congress about NGOs' suspected role in child exploitation and ICE evasion

House lawmakers are advancing their investigation into how non-governmental organizations contributed to the immigration crisis under the Biden administration.

The Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), announced last week that it is holding a hearing, "An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis," as part of "a years-long investigation by the Committee into whether NGOs used taxpayer dollars to facilitate illegal activity during the Biden-Harris administration."

A third organization received over $3 billion from the Biden administration to provide immigrant services.

Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas, Oversight Project president and Blaze News contributor Mike Howell, and GUARD Against Trafficking president and co-founder Ali Hopper will provide their congressional testimony during Wednesday's hearing.

Last month, Reps. Green and Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, sent inquiry letters to over 200 NGOs requesting additional information.

The committee expressed concerns about some of the NGOs' activities, noting that one was linked to "the far-left, anti-law enforcement riots in Los Angeles" and another organization, funded by taxpayer dollars and potentially also backed by the Chinese Communist Party, allegedly advised illegal aliens on how to evade ICE. A third organization received over $3 billion from the Biden administration to provide immigrant services, including for the transportation and housing of unaccompanied alien children, the committee noted.

The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. It can be viewed live on the committee's YouTube.

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Exclusive: Oversight Project refers former FBI Director Wray to DOJ for criminal charges

FBI Director Kash Patel announced earlier this month that the bureau located an intelligence report from August 2020 that detailed "alarming allegations" regarding an apparent Chinese communist plot to interfere in the presidential election for the benefit of then-candidate Joe Biden.

Such allegations, if brought to light at the time, would have vindicated the concerns about voter fraud and foreign election interference then expressed by President Donald Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr, which were written off by election officials, Democrats, and the liberal media as "unfounded" and "preposterous."

Instead, elements of the intelligence community apparently covered up the alleged foreign election interference campaign.

"Former FBI leadership withheld the facts and misled the public on China's 2020 election interference," Patel stated on Thursday. "And they did so for political gain."

Patel noted in a separate message, "We're restoring trust — through transparency, not politics."

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, sent a criminal referral for former FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Department of Justice on Thursday, seeking accountability not only for Wray's alleged role in the apparent cover-up but for his alleged false or misleading statements to Congress regarding the infamous FBI memo targeting traditional Catholics.

Election interference cover-up

The referral obtained by Blaze News, which was also sent to Director Patel's office on Thursday, alleges that Wray violated federal law by giving false and misleading testimony to Congress on the topic of known voter fraud efforts.

On Sept. 24, 2020, Wray told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the FBI had "not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise."

On March 2, 2021, Wray suggested to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI was "not aware of any widespread evidence of voter fraud, much less that would have affected the outcome of the presidential election."

Photo by LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The trouble with both statements is that they fly in the face of what the FBI apparently knew about the alleged Chinese communist attempt to swing the election for Biden.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on July 27, 2020, that between Jan. 1 and June 30 of that election year, CBP officers at the International Mail Facility at Chicago O'Hare International Airport had seized 1,513 shipments containing fraudulent documents, including 19,888 counterfeit U.S. driver's licenses.

"The majority of these shipments were arriving from China and Hong Kong, with other seized shipments arriving from Great Britain and South Korea," noted CBP.

Blaze News previously reported that the bulk of the licenses were intended for college-age students across numerous states and in many cases had functional barcodes.

The August 2020 FBI intelligence report helped make sense of this sudden glut of fake IDs, suggesting that the Chinese communist regime was mass-producing fake American driver's licenses in order to create voter identities for Chinese nationals so that they could vote with fake mail-in ballots.

'Accountability for the bad actors in government would be practically a case of first impression.'

Patel told Just the News that while substantiated, the allegations in the intelligence report "were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public."

The Oversight Project made abundantly clear in its referral that it was highly unlikely Wray was unaware of this report and the allegations therein when he testified before Congress in 2020 and 2021.

After all, Wray apparently received routine briefings about threats to the integrity of the 2020 election from Nikki Floris, the FBI deputy assistant director for counterterrorism at the time, who had raised the alarm in October 2019 about China "aggressively pursuing foreign influence operations."

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Weaponization against Catholics

The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government indicated in a December 2023 report that the FBI:

"abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists";
"relied on at least one undercover agent to develop its assessment";
"proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and church leadership"; and
would likely still be "violating the religious liberties of millions of Catholic Americans" were it not for former FBI special agent Kyle Seraphin's disclosure.

Congressional investigators began looking closely at the bureau's anti-Catholic animus after a memo from the bureau's Richmond field office was leaked earlier that year, tying adherents of the Catholic faith to violent extremist views.

Nes/Getty Images

While Wray previously testified to Congress that the Richmond field office produced only a "single product," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has demonstrated that not to have been the case.

Grassley revealed earlier this month both that the memo was distributed to over 1,000 FBI employees across the country and that the FBI produced "at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology and relied on information from the radical far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)."

— (@)

The Oversight Project's criminal referral alleges that Wray repeatedly gave false testimony about the Richmond anti-Catholic memo, noting that his "testimony was inaccurate not only because it failed to reveal the scope of the memo’s production and dissemination, but also because it failed to reveal the existence of a second draft product on the same topic intended for external distribution to the whole FBI."

"Furthermore, a query of Sentinel (the FBI’s case management system) identified 13 documents and 5 attachments that included the term, 'radical traditionalist catholic' or 'Radical-Traditionalist Catholic' in the FBI systems," said the watchdog's criminal referral. "The Intelligence Memo itself states on page 24 of the PDF — '(U) Prepared by the Richmond Division and the Domestic Terrorism Operations Unit; coordinated with FBI Milwaukee and FBI Portland Divisions.'"

Between his statements to Congress about election interference and his statements about the FBI's anti-Catholic memorandum, the Oversight Project figures that Wray committed several criminal violations, including obstruction of proceedings before Congress; corrupt conduct; and making false statements.

When asked to comment on whether he expects Wray to be held accountable for his alleged violations, Howell told Blaze News, "I don't expect accountability, but we certainly deserve accountability."

"Accountability for the bad actors in government would be practically a case of first impression," continued Howell. "To expect it would be unrealistic optimism, but it should and could happen, and that's why the Oversight Project is making the case publicly and doing everything we can to make it more likely to happen."

Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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Oversight Project over target: Dems seethe as facade of autopen presidency comes crashing down

Democratic lawmakers walked out of a Senate hearing Wednesday on former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline, its cover-up, and its alleged exploitation behind the scenes.

The Republican lawmakers who remained at their posts were rewarded with troubling insights into the fallout of both the cover-up and America's apparent governance in recent years by an unelected cabal of ideologues.

One of the more troubling revelations to come out of the hearing was that in addition to the executive orders, commutations, and pardons issued with Biden's name affixed in recent years, many of the laws passed by Congress may similarly be illegitimate.

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog, revealed in early March that Biden's signature on numerous pardons, commutations, executive orders, and other documents of national consequence was machine-generated.

Biden was not the first president to employ the autopen; however, there is cause to suspect that unelected individuals in Biden's orbit abused the autopen throughout his presidency, particularly toward the end, to advance their radical agendas.

In effect, there appears to have been a shadow presidency — what President Donald Trump suggested to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck in October was a "committee" of unnamed bureaucrats — whose impact has yet to fully be understood.

Photo by Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images

Multiple investigations have been launched into the alleged autopen abuse in the wake of the Oversight Project's damning discoveries and amid mounting evidence of staffers, family members, and other "gatekeepers" having made decisions on Biden's behalf.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on "how the Biden cover-up endangered America and undermined the Constitution," seeking greater clarity both on how Democrats and the media did their best to conceal Biden's cognitive decline from the public and on how his decline was exploited behind the scenes.

Democratic lawmakers on the committee, some of whom helped gaslight the nation about Biden's mental acuity in recent years, refused to hear testimony from former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and former Idaho Solicitor General Theodore Wold, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and University of Virginia law professor John Harrison — and boycotted the hearing.

'They lied to us for four years, and we know they lied. They know they lied.'

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) did, however, show up at the outset to protest their colleagues' closer look into the apparent conspiracy to keep Biden in office and his autopen signature viable.

Before leaving the room, Welch complained that Congress could instead be discussing climate change, health care, the possible war with Iran, and America's debt. He stressed, "What we're doing right now won't help."

Durbin noted on X, "This partisan farce of a hearing is a waste of our time and resources."

Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Contrary to the Democrats' suggestion that the hearing was a useless exercise, Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, suggested to Blaze News that it is critically important now, even though Biden is no longer president, to seek accountability and answers.

"The autopen administration brought great shame on the United States and was an international embarrassment," said Howell. "The United States must live by the most basic contours of its own Constitution if it is to project power and credibility. If we, as a nation, can't tell the world who was running the White House for four years, then we have more than a 'threat to democracy.'"

After highlighting Democratic denial of Biden's decline over the course of his presidency, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) pointed to Democratic senators' empty seats and asked, "Where are they now? They don't want to answer for any of those quotes now. They lied to us for four years, and we know they lied. They know they lied. It's why they're not here."

Wold, a board member of the Oversight Project, noted in his testimony that the "U.S. Constitution vests the executive power in a single person: the president" and underscored that despite the overgrowth of the executive branch since the nation's founding, the president remains "the single source of democratic legitimacy."

'Over half — 32 in total — were signed with an autopen.'

"The president takes positive actions and authenticates those actions through his signature. His signature is required for the most significant actions he may undertake: to sign an executive order, to take any action vested in him by the Constitution, as in granting a pardon, and to take the most important action of all: to sign a bill into law," said Wold. "In all these cases, the president's signature is itself the protection of democratic principles. When the president signs, he communicates his assent and endorsement of the action he takes."

Wold suggested that the risk of divorcing the president's signature from his legitimate assent and endorsement was realized during the Biden years, particularly when clemency warrants and executive orders were signed during his physical and apparent mental absences.

"In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants, and executive orders in July of 2022. Autopen use skyrocketed from there," said Wold. "We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half — 32 in total — were signed with an autopen."

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

The former Idaho solicitor general noted that among the more controversial acts of possibly illegitimate clemency were the pardons for members of the Biden family, Anthony Fauci, and General Mark Milley.

'We need to get those documents.'

Wold later emphasized that the "president actually has to make the decision — that cannot be delegated to a staffer or an adviser," but there was no indication "that anyone other than staff were making these decisions."

— (@)

While much has been made of the questionable legitimacy of Biden's more controversial pardons, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) cut deeper, asking Wold whether legislation that passed both chambers of Congress but then was signed by a presidential staffer without the president's authorization is law.

"No," said Wold.

— (@)

Hawley noted, "For every time that Biden authorized the autopen, there should be a record of that."

Wold confirmed that "in the policy paper flow to the Oval Office, there should be a record of what documents are presented to the president, when, and when he gave his assent to the actions that are listed in those documents, whether it's a judicial nomination or it's a statutory response to Congress."

"We need to get those documents," responded Hawley.

'Those who received autopen pardons should be charged for the crimes they were pardoned for.'

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) — who concluded Biden's was the "autopen presidency, a government run by committee rather than a leader chosen by the American people" — indicated that he will be "pursuing a Special Access Request to obtain Biden's staff secretary's autopen memo and records tracking Biden's authorization of several autopenned documents."

Howell told Blaze News that the Oversight Project has "produced lists of which documents were signed by the autopen. As to 'who' is behind them, we have been communicating our findings to the governmental investigative bodies."

When asked about the Oversight Project's next steps where the autopen saga is concerned, Howell told Blaze News, "We have no steps planned. We have gallops planned. Stay tuned."

In terms of what accountability looks like at this stage — especially after President Donald Trump declared last month on Truth Social that those who exploited Biden's cognitive impairment and allegedly "took over the Autopen" were guilty of "TREASON at the Highest Level" — Wold told Blaze News, "Those who received autopen pardons should be charged for the crimes they were pardoned for. Those who operated the autopen without the direction of the president should be charged with potential crimes ranging from impersonation of an official to forgery."

Wold noted further that when congressional lawmakers meet later this month to discuss the matter further, they should consider "whether the 25th Amendment needs to be updated given the unexpected event of those responsible for invoking it deciding that they preferred an incapacitated president."

Blaze News reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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The only way Trump can serve justice for the Biden administration's crimes?

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, has a bolder plan than task forces to tackle political weaponization under the Biden administration.

“I think the answer to the problems, and frankly the political promises that have been made about weaponizing the government have been there the whole time, in terms of historical precedent,” Howell tells BlazeTV hosts Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”

“Countries and even the United States, over the course of history, have developed basically truth and reconciliation commissions, or committees, what have you, to deal with some of the biggest historical events and abuses, and I think that’s what we’re looking at when we look at what happened over the Biden administration,” he continues.

And he believes this needs to happen so America doesn’t see a repeat of his first administration.

“We learned this lesson in the first Trump administration. There was a lot of efforts to hold Hillary Clinton accountable, to even produce documents that could help inform what her and Obama did, and the first Trump administration decided not to do that, not to release those things, and to basically let Hillary and Company off,” Howell explains, adding, “I fear that we’re making the same mistake again right now.”

Howell believes that an entity that doesn’t work in the same offices being investigated, as well as one that sits at the top of the entire federal government, should have “the full powers of the government” in order to avoid following in the footsteps of Trump’s last stint as president.

“I’m talking about prosecutorial powers, the power to subpoena, the power to grant immunity, perhaps to recommend pardons, and then also the ability to use government funds to make wrongs right,” he explains.

“And once that exists, outside of, you know, the standard apparatus that we’re used to, I think things start moving along,” he adds.

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Media cover-up unravels: Biden’s mental struggles confirmed in damning leaked tapes

Audio of Joe Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, long hidden from the public, has finally been released, confirming, in the ears of many conservatives, what the media and Biden allies have long denied: that the president’s cognitive decline was severe. On Friday, Axios’ Alex Thompson published the tapes just days before the release of his new book with Jake Tapper, sparking fresh scrutiny of the Biden presidency — and the media’s role in shielding it.

Hur interviewed Biden as part of his investigation into the alleged storage of classified materials at Biden’s Delaware home in the period between his vice presidency and inauguration as the nation’s 46th president. Hur cited Biden’s mental decline in his decision not to prosecute, writing, “Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

'The illegal withholding of this audio tape was election interference meant to protect a failing Biden and then Harris campaign.'

At the time, an unnamed Democratic operative called Hur’s characterization of Biden “beyond devastating,” adding, “It confirms every doubt and concern that voters have. If the only reason they didn't charge him is because he’s too old to be charged, then how can he be president of the United States?”

The sentiment was short-lived as Democrats and allies in the mainstream media quickly shifted to defense of Biden after then-Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to release either the audio recording or transcript of the interview. Later in 2024, the Department of Justice relented and released the transcript after House Republicans took action. The recording of the interview had never been released until Friday.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Earlier in May, a federal court gave the Trump administration until May 20 to explain how it would respond to plaintiffs seeking the full Biden-Hur audio recordings. That legal deadline just happens to coincide with the release of “Original Sin,” the new book by Axios’ Alex Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper.

In an emergency late-night court filing obtained by Blaze News, the Oversight Project — a key plaintiff in the lawsuit — highlighted this timing:

Full disclosure is necessary now. One of the two journalists who (apparently) has the full tape is Alex Thompson of Axios, the man with a clear financial interest in how the audio is portrayed given his forthcoming book with Jake Tapper in which Tapper undergoes a remarkable conversion from having favorably covered President Biden when President Biden was in office to now critically reporting on President Biden.

The filing emphasized that Thompson had reportedly obtained the complete recording but, as of Friday, had released only selected clips — those most favorable to the thesis of his upcoming book. On Saturday, Axios released what it described as the full recording of the interview.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Oversight Project President Mike Howell told Blaze News, “The media and Biden administration embarrassed themselves trying to deceive the public about Biden's health.” He added, “The illegal withholding of this audio tape was election interference meant to protect a failing Biden and then Harris campaign. While we are happy we have fulfilled our promise to deliver the tape to the American people, they deserved it long ago. They now deserve accountability and to answer the fundamental question of who was the president the last four years.”

In 2024, the media defenders of the Biden administration, including CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, argued that withholding the recording was appropriate to protect prosecutorial integrity.

In a piece entitled “The Secret Biden Tape We Shouldn’t Hear,” Honig argued, “As a current member of the media (and of the voting public), I’d like to cast scorn on Garland for his decision to withhold the Hur-Biden audio recording. But as a former prosecutor, I applaud him. We probably won’t ever hear the tape. And that’s for the best.”

Following the unexpected release of the recording, Honig did not respond when contacted by Blaze News for comment. But other media figures, including Honig’s CNN colleague Jake Tapper — Thompson’s co-author — appear to be working to rehabilitate their credibility in light of the tape’s contents.

That response has drawn sharp criticism from conservative media watchdogs. Curtis Houck, managing editor of MRC’s NewsBusters, accused the mainstream press of hypocrisy and opportunism.

“All of these liberal journalists expressing shock or dismay at the audio being released need to be lambasted and mocked,” Houck told Blaze News. “This is a blatant covering of one's behind and hoping the public isn't old enough to remember the scorn they heaped at Robert Hur when his report came out.”

Houck further lambasted the mainstream media, “The sadness and/or anger at Joe Biden over hearing him struggle with basic facts about his family is really about that he screwed them out of power in the year of our Lord 2025. This has nothing to do with contrition and the public shouldn't fall victim to their sorrow now. Sudden distrust in the last four years shouldn't be confused with genuine contrition and apologies for participating in a generational cover-up.”

Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images

As more is being learned about the operations of the Biden presidency and the institutional cover-up of Biden’s mental decline, Howell told Blaze News that his organization’s fight to uncover what happened will continue: “Transparency and accountability are how our nation will heal. There is no other path.”

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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