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."

RELATED: Vindicated? Patel's FBI uncovers apparent Chinese communist plot to rig 2020 mail-in vote for Biden

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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."

RELATED: 1,004 days of betrayal for suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle

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.

RELATED: The FBI was completely correct to keep an eye on Catholics

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.

RELATED: Ed Martin floats names of 'gatekeepers' in Biden autopen controversy; Trump accuses exploiters of 'TREASON'

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."

RELATED: Who was president these last four years? We deserve an answer

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."

RELATED: Justice is coming for Biden's 'autopen' pardons — and Trump's DOJ just put everyone on notice

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.

RELATED: Turley identifies special counsel's 'shocking' admission about evidence against Biden: 'As good of a case I could imagine'

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.”

RELATED: Justice is coming for Biden's 'autopen' pardons — and Trump's DOJ just put everyone on notice

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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Are Biden's 'corrupt pardons' about to collapse in court?!



The Oversight Project is an initiative by the Heritage Foundation aimed at investigating and exposing abuses of power, corruption, and inefficiencies within the federal government. Back in March, the Oversight Project broke the Biden autopen scandal, alleging that most signed presidential documents during the Biden regime bore an identical signature, with the exception of his announcement of his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.

The story raised questions about who was really signing documents and running the country. Was Biden authorizing these signatures? If so, was he even aware of what he was signing? Or was someone else acting in his stead?

Yet the real bombshell looms: Are the autopen signatures pardoning Hunter Biden, Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Biden family members legitimate?

President Trump has made it abundantly clear that he believes they are void. But thus far, no formal court case has been filed by the Department of Justice, despite calls for one.

However, the tides may be turning.

On May 13, the newly appointed U.S. pardon attorney, Ed Martin, announced that the DOJ is scrutinizing these pardons, particularly those issued immediately prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration. He claimed they were "unprecedented" and very well could wind up in court.

To get the scoop on what’s next, “Blaze News: The Mandate” host Jill Savage invited Oversight Project President Mike Howell on the show to shed light on how the Trump DOJ could overturn Biden’s autopen pardons.

Howell says the DOJ “[throwing] its weight” behind Martin is “exactly where this always needed to go.”

What’s more, Martin has also “expanded the scope” of his investigation into these pardons.

“It's not just that they were signed by the autopen mechanism and perhaps without Joe Biden's one, awareness, or two, his capacity to even give his consent”; it’s not just a question of “if it is even legal to use an autopen device,” says Howell.

Martin is also asking “whether there was a corrupt intent or a conspiracy in the awarding of the pardons” and “whether it exceeds the scope of the pardon power, which is plenary itself.”

“In other words, are these not pardons at all? Were they corruptly designed? And then were they also fraudulent in the implementation via the autopen? There's a lot wrong with these pardons, and I'm glad the DOJ is on it,” says Howell.

Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson says this is exactly the kind of thing the MAGA base has been begging for. Since Trump’s inauguration, people have not stopped asking, “When is anyone going to face the consequences of their crimes?”

“What are the next steps?” he asks Howell.

The only way to test the legitimacy of these pardons, Howell says, is to “charge one of these people,” which shouldn’t be that difficult given that “a lot of evidence that relates to their crimes is already out there, [so] there's not much that is needed in terms of an investigation.”

“In the course of that prosecution, of course, these defendants will come up and say, ‘No, I have a perfectly good pardon,’ and that is the means by which the pardons will be tested, and in doing so, we might finally understand who was actually running the White House.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.

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Justice is coming for Biden's 'autopen' pardons — and Trump's DOJ just put everyone on notice



Ed Martin, the incoming Department of Justice pardon attorney and director of the DOJ's Weaponization Working Group, announced Tuesday that he will review the rash of questionable "autopen" pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House, noting that they "need some scrutiny."

"They need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter, and to be accepted, and to be something that's used correctly. So I do think we're going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did," Martin told reporters.

The Justice Department's probe could spell trouble for controversial Biden pardonees such as Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — including Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), whom President Donald Trump and other Republicans have faulted for various alleged crimes and improprieties.

For instance, Trump has suggested that Milley may have committed "treason." While previously serving as Trump's most senior uniformed adviser, Milley called his communist Chinese counterpart, communist Gen. Li Zuocheng, on two occasions — four days before the 2020 election and on Jan. 8, 2021 — to reassure Zuocheng that he would provide him with actionable warnings should Trump decide to attack. Milley received a pardon just hours before former President Joe Biden left office.

Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received a "full and unconditional" pass for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014 — around the time the Obama administration supposedly halted funding for dangerous gain-of-function research.

In February, over 16 state attorneys general launched an investigation into Fauci's role in the COVID-19 pandemic response, "demanding accountability for alleged mismanagement, misleading statements, and suppression of scientific debate." Without his autopen pardon, Fauci would be legally exposed at both the state and federal levels.

"The American people were promised accountability, and I think Ed Martin is our best shot at it," Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News. "These pardons are fake and invalid, and the president has already said that is his view."

'There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people.'

"When these people, like the January 6 Committee and particularly Adam Schiff, are charged and try defending their bogus pardon, then we will start to learn who was really running the White House," continued Howell. "We need to answer the question everyone is asking: Who was running the government the last four years?"

Blaze News reached out to the DOJ for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Schiff also did not respond to a question about whether he would mind losing his pardon, given that he indicated in December he didn't want it in the first place.

RELATED: Trump declares Biden's 'autopen' pardons for J6 committee, Fauci, others are 'VOID'

Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

In early March, the Oversight Project revealed that Biden's signature on numerous pardons, executive orders, and other documents of national consequence was likely machine-generated.

The watchdog group later confirmed "the same exact Biden autopen signature" was used on the pardons for Fauci, Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 committee, as well as on the pardons for several members of Biden's family who were apparently involved in dodgy foreign deals with the former president and his felonious son Hunter Biden.

— (@)

Biden's cognitive decline was already enough for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) and others to question the legal legitimacy of pardons bearing his machine-printed signature; however, suspicions about the validity of the documents was compounded by reports of staffers and family members making decisions on Biden's behalf; evidence that his signature appeared on documents while he was on vacation; Biden's alleged admission to having no recollection of a consequential January 2024 order to pause decisions on exports of liquefied natural gas; and a former Biden aide's claim to the New York Post that a key staffer, who was not named, was suspected of unilaterally making decisions to sign documents as the former president's mental faculties declined.

"The prolific use of autopen by the Biden White House was an instrument to hide the truth from the American people as to who was running the government," Howell told Blaze News at the time.

RELATED: The Great Biden Book War has finally begun

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump soon weighed in on the autopen controversy, declaring in a March 17 post on Truth Social that the "'Pardons' that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!"

"The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden," continue Trump. "He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level."

Martin suggested Tuesday that while the mere use of autopen is itself not necessarily an issue, "No one, I think, with the standard of ... reasonableness thinks that what Joe Biden did at the end of his term was particularly reasonable."

"There are some really bad actors, some people that did some really bad things to the American people," continued Martin. "And if they can be charged, we'll charge them. But if they can't be charged, we will name them. ... And in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are shamed. And that's a fact. That's the way things work, and so that's how I believe the job operates."

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Exclusive: Government doesn't know if any illegal aliens registered for draft, as they are required to do, during Biden surge



The Oversight Project sent a Freedom of Information request earlier this year to the U.S. Selective Service System seeking data on illegal aliens who failed to register for the draft.

Now with the responses in, it appears that the watchdog group's hypothesis — both that the SSS during former President Joe Biden's tenure made little effort to ensure that male illegal aliens ages 18-26 were registered for the draft, as required by law, and that multitudes of military-age male illegal aliens likely slipped through the cracks as a result — was right on the money.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "The fact that the Biden administration purposefully ignored having the biggest invasion of military-age males in American history fulfill their legal obligations is a massive scandal."

Background

Immigrant men ages 18-25 must register for the draft within 30 days of arriving in the country. According to the SSS, this includes parolees, illegal aliens, legal permanent residents, asylum-seekers, refugees, and all men with visas of any kind that expired more than 30 days ago. Those on current non-immigrant visas are exempt so long as their visas remain valid until they turn 26.

The Oversight Project filed a FOIA request in late January for documents pertaining to whether inadmissible and deportable aliens have been registering for the Selective Service.

The request noted that the SSS stated on its website that it does "not now, or in the past, collect or share any information which would indicate a man's immigration status, either documented or undocumented"; that it lacked the "authority to collect such information"; and that it had no use for such information "irrelevant to the registration requirement."

'Your agency would have seen unprecedented increases in registrations over the Biden administration.'

The Oversight Project appeared eager to square the agency's apparent refusal to collect data on multitudes of draft-eligible men on account of their undocumented status with the SSS' assertion that it plays a critical role in ensuring American readiness in a time of crisis and how "high registration rates across the nation serve as the foundation of fairness and equity for full operations."

The watchdog group also appeared interested in determining whether the SSS witnessed a spike in registrations during the unprecedented flood of illegal aliens into the United States during the Biden administration, noting that SSS data provided to Congress showed the agency received over 23,000 registrations in 2023 from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services but alternatively provided no data for entities that handle illegal immigration.

"If male inadmissible aliens between 18 and 26 were registering for the Selective Service, which is usually their duty under law, then your agency would have seen unprecedented increases in registrations over the Biden administration," said the FOIA request. "The absence of such a surge indicates that there is widespread criminal noncompliance by such aliens."

FOIA answered

The SSS informed the Oversight Project that it has no records for the period beginning Jan. 20, 2021, and ending March 20, 2025, sufficient to show how many:

  • draft-eligible inadmissible aliens either registered or failed to register for the draft;
  • draft-eligible males entered the country and either registered or failed to register for the draft;
  • aliens who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied alien children that have since registered or failed to register for the draft;
  • asylum applicants have registered or failed to register for the draft;
  • aliens with final orders of removal have registered or failed to register for the draft; and
  • draft-eligible males who registered or failed to register for the draft have also received or have applications pending for immigration parole, Temporary Protected Status, deferred enforcement departure, or Deferred Action on Childhood Arrival.

The SSS revealed further that it had no registration records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which does not register immigrants but provides non-immigrant visa information regarding ineligible men living in the country on temporary visa status.

'Luckily, this provides an opening for the Trump administration.'

The agency also noted that it receives printed copies of completed registration records for immigrants legally entering the country via U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Service — but that this information is entered into the Selective Service database without indications of whether the registrant is a legal immigrant or whether the records were provided by USCIS.

Relevance

The information concerning male illegal aliens' registration or failure to do so — which appears presently out of reach — is relevant for a number of reasons.

First, a knowing and purposeful failure to register on the part of an illegal alien is a felony offense under the Military Selective Service Act of 1917 and a deportable offense under the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952.

The Congressional Research Service indicated that the Department of Justice rarely pursues felony cases against those who fail to register for the draft — there were no criminal prosecutions between January 1986 and 2021. A failure to prosecute in decades past does not, however, mean that the Trump administration cannot start anew.

"Luckily, this provides an opening for the Trump administration, which is focused on removing criminal illegal aliens as a priority," Howell told Blaze News. "Now they can turn every military-age male illegal into a criminal overnight, drawing in way more government resources to support mass deportations."

Blaze News reached out to the DOJ for comment about prosecuting such offenses but did not receive a response by deadline.

Second, where relevance is concerned: Male illegal aliens who fail to register can be precluded from obtaining U.S. citizenship and are ineligible for certain federal and state employment opportunities and education benefits.

Third, the absence of an increase in registrations amid the unlawful deluge of military-age men into the U.S. during the Biden administration could serve as an indictment of elements of the previous government.

Fourth, American men might be interested to know in the event of a war necessitating the draft how many military-age foreign nationals have or have not registered to join them in risking all abroad to protect the United States and the vulnerable citizens who remain behind. Eligible citizens, like the SSS, might also have an interest in "fairness and equity" and like to know whether illegal aliens are willing to sacrifice for the nation into which they have stolen.

Willful blindness

Documents obtained by the Oversight Project revealed both an awareness behind the scenes that the SSS was failing to capture information on potential illegal alien registrants and an interest in omitting the requirement that illegal aliens register for the draft.

Craig Brown, who stepped into the role of acting director of the SSS in January 2021, appeared to confirm that the agency was consciously missing a big piece of the puzzle, noting in an April 28, 2023, email that "undocumented immigrants are by definition not giving data. We get info on every male trying to legit stay in the country."

'President Trump should fire Biden holdover Craig Brown.'

In a December 2022 email chain between Selective Service employees concerning the estimated cost of a legislative proposal that would automatically register all eligible men on their 18th birthdays, an employee then working as deputy general counsel, legislative affairs, noted, "We may want to consider omitting the requirement that undocumented immigrants register."

"President Trump should fire Biden holdover Craig Brown," said Howell. "It looks like he purposefully failed to realize that the biggest invasion of military-age males meant he should probably get them registered for the draft. That is his job, after all."

A Selective Service spokesman did not respond to a question about Brown's email but said in response to the Oversight Project's broader critique, "U.S. citizens and immigrants residing in the United States (except for those on non-immigrant visas) are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday. The law permits men to register up until they turn age 26."

"The agency works to raise awareness of the legal requirement to register with all men within this age range," added the spokesman.

The spokesman told Blaze News that the agency "would not speculate on outcomes" when asked whether U.S. District Court Judge Trevor Neil McFadden's ruling earlier this month enabling the Trump administration to proceed with its requirement that everyone in the country illegally must register with the federal government might result in an increase in Selective Service registrations.

The Oversight Project made clear in its FOIA request why continued apathy on this matter is unacceptable, noting:

Failure to register for Selective Service is a felony, and thus the pool of potential criminal illegal aliens is much larger than believed. Moreover, an illegal alien's failure to register for Selective Service reflects that they are not coming to America for a better life with a desire to contribute to society. At the end of the day, they seek to illegally obtain the freedoms offered by America while at the very same time violating their legal duty to defend the country. Every illegal alien who submits an absurd asylum claim, is "paroled," or "gets away" after illegal[ly] crossing the border quite literally seeks to avail themselves of American freedoms on the backs of everyday Americans who complied with their Selective Service registration requirements and if it becomes necessary would defend those freedoms with their lives.

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‘Bidenbucks’ Plan Uses Native American School Children In Voter Registration Scheme

Records also expose Biden’s secretary of the Interior arguably stepping over the Hatch Act line barring political activities on the job.

Indiana takes a stand against Biden's 'election interference' scheme



The Heritage Foundation's government watchdog Oversight Project revealed via a Blaze News exclusive in May just how President Joe Biden's Executive Order 14019 might play out as "election interference."

The order, issued early in Biden's presidency, effectively compels federal agencies that regularly engage with the American public to mobilize historically Democratic groups to vote.

The Oversight Project obtained various agencies' strategic plans, providing insights into some of the lengths to which agencies were willing to go to mobilize Biden-friendly voter turnout per the EO.

Besides providing a look behind the curtain, the watchdog detailed three ways states could throw a wrench in the works: Pass laws attacking the application of the order with regard to presidential elections; frustrate the scheme with complaints about possible Hatch Act violations; and remove or attack designations of federal agencies to act under the National Voter Registration Act that were not provided by the state or were provided without appropriate authority.

Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales (R) took action accordingly Tuesday, underscoring in letters to those federal agencies and departments active in the state that they are not permitted to engage in voter registration or other election activity without state authorization. Any such efforts are to end immediately.

In the June 28 letter obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Morales stated, "To my knowledge, your agency is not a designated voter registration agency."

'The fight back is beginning.'

"If your agency has been distributing voter registration forms or assisting the public with voter registration or absentee voting forms, you are requested to discontinue such action immediately, as the unauthorized conduct of such activity is likely violative of Indiana and federal law," added Morales.

Morales' office indicated in a release that the warning letters, reportedly sent to over 120 agencies, were directly in response to Biden's executive order, "which would be contrary to state law as well as congressional authorization and funding."

"Under state and federal law (Indiana Code 3-7-17 and the National Voter Registration Act), government agencies must be specifically designated by the state as 'voter registration agencies' to lawfully offer or provide voter registration services and absentee voting assistance," said the release. "Such designation is critical to assuring compliance with laws prescribing administration of voter registration forms and absentee voting applications, which serve to protect the integrity of elections."

"States know best when it comes to our elections," Morales wrote on X. "We don't need federal government overreach to run safe, secure elections!"

Morales also made clear that he and his administration are committed to increasing voter turnout.

"Alongside my team, we have blanketed the Hoosier state with voter outreach efforts, from festivals to county fairs to sporting events. In anticipation of the upcoming November election, those efforts are only going to amplify," Morales said in his Tuesday announcement.

The Oversight Project noted, "The fight back is beginning."

Catherine Gunsalus, director of state advocacy at Heritage Action for America, stated, "By signing E.O. 14019, President Biden is abusing the power of the federal government in a desperate attempt to boost his sinking campaign. Thankfully, Hoosiers are having none of it."

"Secretary Morales should be applauded for protecting Indiana from undue federal overreach and directing agencies in his state to refuse to go along with Biden’s scheme," added Gunsalus.

Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, said in a statement, "We are thrilled that Secretary of State Morales is taking up our recommendation to kick the feds out of Indiana's elections. The people of Indiana should decide their own elections. Biden's illegal taxpayer-funded scheme to have government agencies run the get-out-the-vote operation for his campaign is an egregious abuse of power."

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Blaze News exclusive: Heritage Oversight Project exposes Biden's 'election interference' scheme, identifies 3 ways states can fight back



President Joe Biden issued an executive order early in his presidency that effectively compels federal agencies to mobilize historically Democratic groups to vote. After investigating Executive Order 14019, its origins, and its application, the Heritage Foundation's government watchdog Oversight Project concluded it constitutes "election interference" and could be greatly consequential in November.

"The last election was decided by less than 40K votes in the determinative swings," Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News.

Howell highlighted further how Demos — a leftist think tank whose 2020 recommendations to the Biden administration appear to have helped inspire EO 14019 — has boasted that the scheme could bring in 3 million new voter registrations per year. Howell suspects the number could be far higher.

The Oversight Project has gone beyond merely diagnosing the problem. Today, it has exposed various agencies' strategic plans and identified three major steps that states can take to thwart or at the very least "frustrate" them.

The order

Months after taking office, Biden issued Executive Order 14019, alleging that minorities, particularly blacks, are disproportionately met today with "significant obstacles" to voting. According to the preamble, they are "disproportionately burdened by voter identification laws and limited opportunities to vote by mail."

Greater turnout from this particular cohort would likely be a boon for Biden, given that 83% of black voters are presently Democrats or lean Democratic, according to the Pew Research Center.

After intimating that minorities have trouble using IDs and mailboxes, the preamble suggests that in order to remedy this perceived racial discrimination and to "protect the right to vote," it is incumbent upon the Biden administration to enmesh itself more fully in the election process.

'Biden signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14019 directing every federal agency to get out the vote for his reelection campaign.'

To this end, Biden compelled federal agencies to "consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process."

— (@)

The Oversight Project indicated this means those federal agencies that regularly engage with the American public must:

  • "use their resources, connections, and relationships with their clientele to facilitate registrations and mass mail-in ballot applications;
  • "use federal resources to assist in completing those registrations and applications"; and
  • "provide space on 'agency premises' and resources to 'approved' non-governmental organizations ('NGO') and 'state officials' to accomplish these directives."

The Oversight Project has summarized the situation thusly: "On March 7, 2021 Biden signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14019 directing every federal agency to get out the vote for his reelection campaign. This whole of government approach is partnering with exclusively left-wing dark money groups."

Partisan executors

There are various reasons to doubt the lawfulness and neutrality of these efforts — whether prospective voters in historically right-leaning areas will be sought out for registry with the same enthusiasm as potential Biden voters in blue enclaves. After all, the administrative state overwhelmingly leans left and and has made no secret in recent years of its anti-Trump skew.

The Hill reported that 95% of all campaign donations from 14 government agencies went to Clinton ahead of the 2016 election. In 2020, the majority of federal employees again donated to the Democratic candidate.

A balance is unlikely to be struck now, especially with former President Donald Trump expected to restore the Schedule F employment category for federal employees if re-elected, which would make it easier to kick insubordinate and poorly performing bureaucrats to the curb.

Oversight highlighted what are perhaps more pressing issues with the order's execution, such as its corresponding approval process for non-governmental organizations and state officials, noting that the evidence at hand — of which there would be more but for the administration's apparent aversion to transparency — "demonstrates a left-wing partisan implementation of E.O. 14019."

In a May 1 memo, Oversight indicated there was cause to suspect that the NGOs executing Biden's will were predominantly, if not entirely, populated by fellow travelers.

The Biden Department of Justice, various other federal agencies, and White House staff, held a "Listening Session" on July 12, 2021, with regards to the order's implementation. Oversight noted that there was not one identifiable Republican, Independent or politically conservative individual among the NGOs' representatives present for the session.

That is less surprising given the liberal, Democratic-aligned groups in attendance, which included the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, Black Votes Matter, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Open Society Policy Center, and the NAACP.

It's not just the political makeup and biases of the NGOs that warrant skepticism about the neutrality of the voter mobilization scheme.

According to the Oversight Project, Democratic state actors are similarly getting in on the scheme.

In March, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced an agreement with the Michigan Department of State to oblige Biden and execute his order in the state. Similar initiatives in Michigan boosted Biden in 2020. Now his administration will be working hand in glove with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, "a left-wing partisan who has embraced policy positions that undermine election security."

Benson has a spotty record when it comes to elections. A State Court of Claims judge ruled in 2021 that she had violated state law by unilaterally altering absentee voting rules ahead of the 2020 election. According to the Federalist, she worked with a nonprofit linked to Mark Zuckerberg-funded groups to influence state elections in 2019. In March, she was sued by the Republican National Committee for allegedly failing to clean up Michigan's "inflated and "inaccurate" voter rolls.

Despite branding Biden's opponent a "threat to democracy" in December and suggesting she was allied with her counterparts in swing states against a "common adversary," the law violating Democrat will nonetheless play a part in "connecting Michigan's small business community with the tools and information they need to play an even greater active role in our democracy."

'Biden bucks' strategies exposed

While concerns in recent years about the execution of Biden's order could possibly be allayed by the provision of greater insights into the nature of its rollout, Oversight indicated "the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats have fought efforts to provide transparency about E.O. 14019."

Various attempts to obtain information via congressional oversight and Freedom of Information requests — such as those launched by the Foundation for Government Accountability and America First Legal Foundation — have apparently been met with resistance.

Upon suing 14 agencies in an effort to see the strategic plans they provided to the White House, the Biden DOJ told AFL to pound sand, claiming the plans were exempt from public disclosure as privileged presidential communications, according to Oversight.

These apparent efforts to keep the specifics of the scheme under wraps have prompted greater suspicion, especially at Oversight, which has apparently filed around 1,600 FOIA requests related to the EO and a lawsuit just last week against the Small Business Administration.

Oversight has, however, finally got its hands on various agencies' strategic plans along with internal communications about the executive order and correspondences with leftist NGOs.

Newly released and largely redacteddocuments detail some of the lengths federal agencies are going to mobilize friendly voter turnout per the EO, such as guaranteeing federal employees four hours of paid administrative leave per election to go vote or participate as supposedly non-partisan poll watchers. In the documents, there are also indications of internal concern over executing Biden's will whilst avoiding brazen violations of the Hatch Act.

While some proposals in the documents are relatively innocuous, those promising to be most impactful appear to be geared toward boosting Democratic numbers, as Oversight previously indicated.

Among the documents obtained by Oversight is a 2021 recommendation to the Department of Education from various Democrat-aligned groups, such as the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, suggesting that it include "check-the-box" automatic voter registration for individuals applying for federal financial aid via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process. The activistic outfits note in their recommendation that the Office of Federal Student Aid presently has the contact information of 20 million Americans enrolled in post-secondary institutions.

Non-college educated voters lean Republican whereas voters with college degrees are much more likely to lean toward the Democratic Party, according to Pew. 20 million email addresses and automatic registries could go a long way in a tight race.

Oversight has indicated that it will continue to populate its repository of "Biden Bucks" documents as they become available.

Counteroffensive

When pressed on whether Congress could take meaningful action against the scheme, Howell responded, "Congress missed their shot. Ship sailed. They funded this."

States, alternatively, could throw a wrench in the works.

Oversight outlined three ways that states could go about doing so, the first of which is attacking the application of the order with regards to presidential elections.

"Presidential elections are governed by the Electors clause of the Constitution, which by its text and original understanding gives zero warrant for Congressional action. States are well within their powers to pass laws solely governing presidential elections," wrote the Oversight Project. "To be sure, different procedures for Presidential Elections impose increased administrative burdens and costs, but those are justified by insulating at least that electoral process from partisan Executive Branch action."

States could also raise hell about the "partisan political activity inherent in the plans and actions of the federal employees involved."

Complaints citing possible Hatch Act violations could potentially frustrate the scheme or at the very least force the administration to speak to its meddling.

Finally, Oversight highlighted how "Section 7 of the [National Voter Registration Act] provides that 'Federal and nongovernmental offices' can only engage in the type of activities directed by the Executive Order if a state 'designate[s]' that office to act as a voter registration agency."

"States could take all appropriate action to remove and attack designations of federal agencies to act under the NVRA that States did not make, or that were made by State officials without appropriate authority," wrote Oversight, stressing that college campuses and state prisons would be worth scrutinizing.

'Executive Order 14019 raises significant challengers for our nation's system of checks and balances that the framers carefully crafted in the Constitution to guard against attempts by the executive branch to circumvent the legislative process.'

Howell and his team at the Oversight Project are hardly outliers in figuring the so-called "Biden Bucks" scheme for a "threat to election integrity."

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee noted in their Monday letter to Shalanda Young, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, "Ensuring the safe and secure administration of elections and access for all legal voters is critical, but the authority to engage in such efforts is expressly delegated to the states and the Congress by the Constitution."

"Executive Order 14019 raises significant challengers for our nation's system of checks and balances that the framers carefully crafted in the Constitution to guard against attempts by the executive branch to circumvent the legislative process," continued the letter.

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