DOJ pardon attorney doubts validity of Biden autopen pardons as nullification campaign picks up steam



The campaign to throw out the Biden-era pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee, and other controversial figures appears to be gaining momentum — and the Office of the Pardon Attorney made clear this week that it's onboard.

The House Oversight Committee alleged in its damning 100-page report on Tuesday that senior Biden staffers not only worked desperately to conceal the former president's rapid mental deterioration but usurped his authority with the help of the presidential autopen — a machine used to affix Biden's signature to a host of controversial executive actions and pardons.

'In theory, a court invalidation could result in restoration of penalties.'

"As President Biden was losing command of himself throughout his time in office, his executive actions — especially pardons, of which there are many — cannot all be deemed his own," said the report. "The authority to grant pardons is not provided to the president’s inner circle. Nor can it be delegated to particular staff when a president’s competency is in question."

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) concluded that unauthorized executive actions signed by autopen were "null and void," then asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the validity of all executive actions taken during Biden's time in office.

Bondi confirmed on Tuesday that a review of the autopen use for pardons during the Biden era is underway.

Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney at the DOJ, suggested in a letter on Monday to Comer that his investigation into the matter has turned up "disturbing findings" such that his office "cannot support the validity and ongoing legal effect of pardons and commutations issued during the Biden administration without further examination."

In the letter obtained by CNN, Martin suggested that Biden's admission to the New York Times that he "did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people" by itself "seems to raise serious questions of whether those commutations are valid."

RELATED: Biden freed killers with a pen he didn’t even hold

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Martin indicated that doubt over the validity of the commutations is further compounded by the suggestion in former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer's communications with the Biden White House that the autopenned commutations issued on Jan. 17 in the former president's name were legally flawed.

The pardon attorney raised other "defects" concerning the pardon process, particularly in the final weeks of the administration.

"My office cannot support the validity of AutoPen pardons for individuals such as Anthony Fauci, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley, and many more without further examination and fact-finding," wrote Martin. "In my tenure here, I have not seen any evidence supporting the theory that President Biden was personally aware and authorized these AutoPen'd pardons."

Martin, who alluded to a court ultimately weighing in on the validity of the pardons, told Comer, "If these pardons or commutations are challenged in any way, I recognize serious difficulties in defending them."

The Oversight Committee similarly foreshadowed a court voiding the pardons in its report, stating that "the Constitution is clear: 'The President shall ... have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States.'"

The committee further quoted from a recent essay by constitutional scholar Philip Hamburger, a professor at Columbia Law School, which concluded, "The history confirms that the Constitution’s location of the pardon power is significant. The president must make the decisions, and the courts can hold pardons void if the decisions are made by others."

While the nullification campaign's success in the courts could spell disaster for Fauci, Milley, and others, some scholars have cast doubt on the likelihood of that outcome.

When asked whether the pardonees' convictions and legal vulnerabilities would be fully restored should their pardons be ruled invalid, Jeremy Paul, a professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law, told Blaze News, "In theory, a court invalidation could result in restoration of penalties. I see this as extremely unlikely."

"If the DOJ attempted to impose punishment upon the affected individuals, the individuals would raise the pardons as a defense in federal court," continued Paul. "Lower courts would issue rulings. The case could end up in the Supreme Court but that Court would not be required to hear the case."

Paul expressed doubt about whether the pardons could be invalidated in the first place, stating, "Unless evidence emerges that DOJ officials granted pardons in express opposition to President Biden's wishes, which seems highly unlikely, I cannot see any basis on which pardons could be deemed invalid."

Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford Law School professor, suggested to CNN that one way to go about trying to void a pardon would be for Attorney General Bondi to "sue for a declaratory judgment that the pardons were invalid because of some form of impropriety in the signing of them, or in the giving of the pardon."

Blaze News has reached out to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for comment.

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Bondi has bad news for Fauci, Milley, and other Biden pardonees: DOJ is actively reviewing Biden-era autopen use



The House Oversight Committee published a damning 100-page report on Tuesday deeming invalid those executive actions and pardons issued without proper authorization and with machine-generated signatures in former President Joe Biden's name.

In a corresponding letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) noted that the committee had found "President Biden's aides coordinated a cover-up of the president's diminishing faculties" and "that these same aides utilized an ad hoc, inconsistent, and ineffective process to obtain President Biden's assent to certain key decisions, which raises significant questions about whether President Biden knew — let alone provided a decision regarding — the 'decisions' that, often through the use of an autopen, ultimately bore his signature."

Comer asked Bondi to investigate all executive actions taken during Biden's time in office "to ascertain whether they were duly authorized by the president of the United States."

Hours after the publication of the report and the committee's assertion that Biden's executive actions are "NULL and VOID," Bondi revealed on X that her "team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration's reported use of autopen for pardons."

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on June 4 directing the White House Counsel's Office to investigate, in consultation with Bondi and the head of any other relevant agency, "whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president."

Trump specifically tasked the investigators with looking into the "circumstances surrounding Biden's supposed execution of numerous executive actions" and reviewing the policy documents for which the autopen was used, including clemency grants and executive orders.

RELATED: House committee declares unauthorized Biden autopen pardons 'void' in damning new report

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, concluded in a Monday report that after reviewing approximately 1,597 enrolled copies of documents bearing Biden's signature, 846 of 958 executive orders, pardons, commutations, and proclamations were signed with autopen.

Of the Biden-era documents analyzed, Oversight Project indicated that 75% of the pardons — including for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee — and 51.8% of the commutations were signed with autopen.

'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.'

Bondi noted that Comer's "new information is extremely helpful, and his leadership on this issue is invaluable," adding that the DOJ will continue working with the House Oversight Committee "to deliver accountability for the American people."

Ed Martin, the DOJ's pardon attorney who announced a similar investigation into the matter of Biden's alleged pardons in May, responded to Bondi's statement with emojis signifying police and the scales of justice. Martin also suggested that the Oversight Project's statistics regarding autopen usage during the Biden administration warrant "closer review."

A determination that some or all of the Biden-era pardons are invalid could prove consequential for many of the recipients, including Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who received a "full and unconditional" pass for possible federal crimes going back to 2014, and for Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom Trump has accused of committing "treason."

However, Trump has made clear that he especially wishes to see consequence visited on the former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee.

Trump announced after the Oversight Project's initial exposé about the liberal use of the presidential autopen during the Biden administration,

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. 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.

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Hegseth revokes Mark Milley's security detail and clearance, possibly giving him a demotion: 'Woke train wreck'



Just hours before leaving the Oval Office, former President Joe Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon for retired Gen. Mark Milley, citing the possibility that President Donald Trump might seek "revenge" on the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It turns out the pardon was not enough to spare Milley from professional consequence over his past actions and subversion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revoked Milley's security detail and security clearance on Tuesday and has also ordered the Pentagon's inspector general to launch a probe into the retired general's actions, Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot confirmed this week to multiple publications.

Ullyot noted that Hegseth will determine whether Milley should receive a demotion after considering the findings of the inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding his conduct. Officials told Fox News that the four-star general could ultimately lose a star based on his efforts to "undermine the chain of command" during Trump's first term.

While previously serving as Trump's most senior uniformed adviser, Milley telephoned 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 his commander in chief decide to attack.

When testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September 2021, Milley defended his apparent vow to neutralize the strategic advantage of a possible American surprise attack for the benefit of an adversarial nation that he had elsewhere admitted was "the greatest geopolitical challenge to the United States." In his remarks, Milley characterized his circumvention of presidential authority as an effort to "manage crisis and prevent war between great powers armed with nuclear weapons."

In a 2023 Truth Social post that primarily focused on Milley's central role in the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump noted:

This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.

"Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership," Joe Kasper, Hegseth's chief of staff, said in a statement Tuesday.

Mollie Halpern, a spokeswoman for the acting DOD inspector general, told the New York Times, "We have received the [inquiry] request and we are reviewing it."

Although Milley enraged Trump and other elements of the new administration by privately communicating with adversaries,downplaying communist spy aircraft over the U.S., and overseeing the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, he certainly did himself no favors with his various personal attacks on the 47th president.

Milley, whose new chairman portrait was removed from the Pentagon last week and whose Army chief of staff portrait may soon be taken down, previously called Trump a "wannabe dictator"; is quoted in Bob Woodward's book "War" as calling Trump "fascist to the core" and the "most dangerous person to this country"; and reportedly told his staff that instead of submitting a sanctimonious resignation letter in June 2020, he would "just fight him."

"The ghost of General Milley shouldn't haunt the Pentagon any more, nor should it haunt the armed forces," a senior defense official told the Washington Post. "This is all about accountability for General Milley."

The Post indicated that Milley could not be reached for comment.

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Milley, who previously vowed to warn Chinese communists ahead of American attack, claims Chinese spy balloon collected no evidence



Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claimed in an interview over the weekend that the infamous 200-foot Chinese spy balloon, which flew across the continental United States before ultimately being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4, 2023, hadn't actually done any spying.

Milley, who has previously attempted to put Chinese communists' nerves at ease — even at the potential expense of an American advantage — told "CBS News Sunday Morning" that the spy balloon likely hadn't fulfilled its singular purpose while darting across the very superpower China seeks to replace.

"The intelligence community, their assessment — and it's a high-confidence assessment — [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon," said Milley, invoking the confidence of the same community that continues to cast doubt on the Wuhan lab origins of COVID-19 and whose top alumni suggested the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.

According to Milley, the spy balloon had likely been blown off course by winds at 60,000 feet. He noted further that the "particular motor on that aircraft can't go against those winds at that altitude."

This suggestion resembles the excuse originally provided by the Chinese regime as to why another one of its spy balloons had been spotted over the American interior.

"I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence and didn't transmit any intelligence back to China," added Milley.

The State Department initially indicated in February that the vessel, which had flown above the U.S. for eight days, had "multiple antennas … likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications." Furthermore, the department noted that China's spy balloon operations are executed by the People's Liberation Army using military technology.

The Pentagon, which rejected China's claims that the vessel was a weather airship, admitted that the spy balloon shot down in February was at least the fifth time in recent years that China had violated American sovereignty with a spy vessel, reported the Washington Post.

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a senior Pentagon official, said after the ship was shot down, "We know that they were looking to surveil strategic sites, to include some of our strategic bases in the continental United States," reported USA Today.

CNN reported that following the FBI's analysis of the wreckage, Ryder pre-empted Milley, suggesting in June that the balloon "did not collect while it was transiting the United States."

Government officials within the Biden administration reportedly tracked the spy balloon from Hainan, China, all the way to the U.S. without taking action. It appears as though the spy balloon may have initially intended to surveil Guam and Hawaii.

The spy vessel, which President Joe Biden characterized in May as a "silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars' worth of spying equipment," first entered American airspace on Jan. 28, north of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

From Alaska, the balloon passed through Canadian airspace, then was spotted over Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, reported ABC News.

Along the way, the balloon may have gotten a good look at Montana's various nuclear missile silos and the state's Malmstrom Air Force Base as well as Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the home of the stealth bomber.

After the Federal Aviation Authority instituted one of the biggest restricted airspace zones in American history, a F-22 fighter jet blasted the balloon out of the sky with a heat-seeking missile off the coast of South Carolina.

While he has acknowledged that "China is the greatest geopolitical challenge to the United States," Milley, who is set to retire by October, has recommended that Americans "lower the rhetoric a little bit with the temperature" regarding the communist nation, reported Defense One.

Milley has modeled that behavior in recent years.

While serving as the most senior uniformed adviser to former President Donald Trump, Milley telephoned his communist Chinese counterpart to reassure him that he would provide him with actionable warnings should his commander in chief decide to attack.

Milley later defended his apparent vow to nullify the strategic advantage of a possible America surprise attack for the benefit of an adversarial nation before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September 2021, suggesting he had been attempting to "manage crisis and prevent war between great powers armed with nuclear weapons," reported Politico.

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Millions of emails containing sensitive US military information have been sent to a Russian ally for years because of a typo



Military personnel have not only intentionally shared sensitive information with adversaries in recent years but have done so unwittingly as well.

According to a new Financial Times report, millions of U.S. military emails have been incorrectly sent to a close Russian ally over the course of at least a decade.

Messages intended for ".MIL" accounts, which are connected to an American-owned internet domain, were instead sent to the ".ML" domain, which is alternatively associated with the West African country of Mali.

These emails have reportedly included highly sensitive information, including "diplomatic documents, tax returns, passwords and the travel details of top officers."

The CIA's "World Factbook" indicates that Mali has increased security ties with Russia in recent years. Moscow has also provided the Islamic terrorism-plagued nation with substantial military equipment and training. There are presently an estimated 1,000 Russian military contractors in Mali.

Johannes Zuurbier, the Dutch internet entrepreneur who serves as managing director of the Amsterdam-based Mali Dili, has managed Mali's internet domain since 2013. He reportedly raised this issue with the U.S. nearly 10 years ago and has collected well over 100,000 misdirected messages since.

In his latest attempt to press the U.S. to take corrective action, he stated, "This risk is real and could be exploited by adversaries of the US."

That risk of exploitation will now greatly increase because as of Monday, Zuurbier will no longer manage the domain. Instead, Mali's government will be directly intercepting stray American military emails.

The Times noted that while many of the misdirected emails are spam, some contain "X-rays and medical data, identity document information, crew lists for ships, staff lists at bases, maps of installations, photos of bases, naval inspection reports, contracts, criminal complaints against personnel, internal investigations into bullying, official travel itineraries, bookings, and tax and financial records."

The travel itinerary for Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville's May trip to Indonesia was among the misdirected emails, right down to his hotel room number.

Another email in Zuurbier's collection was reportedly from an FBI agent intended for a Navy official with regard to a visit at an FBI facility.

Another misdirected message sent by an FBI agent reportedly detailed an "urgent Turkish diplomatic letter to the US state department about possible operations by the militant Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) against Turkish interest in the US."

The same federal agent also sent along a "sensitive" briefing concerning efforts by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to co-opt Iranian students and the Telegram messaging app to wage espionage operations in America.

Such data could help America's enemies plan attacks, assassinations, extortion campaigns, and more.

Mike Rogers, a retired four-star Navy admiral and the second commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, told the Times, "If you have this kind of sustained access, you can generate intelligence even just from unclassified information," adding, "It's not out of the norm that people make mistakes but the question is the scale, the duration and the sensitivity of the information."

Rogers intimated that the transfer of the domain's control to the Mali government poses a serious problem, particularly if it "sees it as an advantage that they can use."

Steven Stransky, a lawyer who previously served as senior counsel to the Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Law Division, told the BBC, "Those sorts of communications would mean that a foreign actor can start building dossiers on our own military personnel, for espionage purposes, or could try to get them to disclose information in exchange for financial benefit. ... It's certainly information that a foreign government can use."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told CNN in a statement Monday, "The Department of Defense (DoD) is aware of this issue and takes all unauthorized disclosures of Controlled National Security Information or Controlled Unclassified Information seriously."

Gorman also suggested that the DOD "has implemented policy, training, and technical controls to ensure that emails from the '.mil' domain are not delivered to incorrect domains."

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh revealed Monday that the DOD has preemptively blocked its email accounts from emailing the Mali addresses.

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Trump Defense Secretary Says Milley Went Rogue, Had No Authority To Pass Secret Intel To Communist China

Miller said that Gen. Mark Milley had no authority to make 'secret' calls to his counterpart in communist China and needs to resign 'immediately.'