Soldier discharged under Biden after refusing COVID vax finally gets justice, thanks to Trump



Mark Bashaw, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Army, finally has a measure of justice after he was criminally convicted and discharged for refusing to abide by COVID-related protocols implemented under President Joe Biden.

In August 2021, then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin imposed a COVID vaccine mandate for members of the military, claiming the shots were critical for maintaining healthy, ready armed forces. Those like Bashaw who refused were required either to work from home or to subject themselves to COVID testing before going into the office, where they would have to wear a mask.

Bashaw — the company commander of the Army Public Health Center in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland — refused to abide by those directives. As a result, he was convicted by a court martial in 2022 of failing to obey lawful orders.

In a 2023 social media post, he claimed he had been court-martialed because he "refused to participate with lies." Following his conviction, he was involuntarily discharged.

Some 8,000 service members were similarly discharged from the military for refusing the shot. However, Bashaw is believed to have been the first to be court-martialed for failing to adhere to the COVID protocols issued by Austin, The Hill reported.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued Bashaw a full and unconditional pardon.

Bashaw's conviction did not result in any jail sentence, but it did give him a criminal record. Trump's pardon wipes his record clean.

Bashaw celebrated the news of his pardon on social media: "I just received a Presidential Pardon from President Donald J. Trump. I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation. Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump and to your incredible team."

After thanking others, including former U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin, Bashaw's post added: "Time for accountability!" It also included an image that described COVID as a "plandemic."

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

Photo by Craig Hudson For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz applauded Bashaw's courage despite his "unfathomable" suffering "under the Biden-controlled DOD."

"It’s easy to be a hero now that COVID tyranny has been universally repudiated and it no longer costs anything to take a stand. Yet, Bashaw risked his entire career and even time in the brig for standing up for the rule of law and the medical ethics of public health," Horowitz told Blaze News.

Horowitz also thanked Trump for making good use of his pardon powers: "Well played, Mr. President."

BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who has long railed against the COVID shots, was likewise pleased to hear that Trump intervened in Bashaw's case.

"This is another commendable act of penance by President Trump for the mistakes of his first administration during the scamdemic, which set the stage for the outright tyranny imposed by whoever was making decisions for Biden the last four years. His language at times certainly has its bravado, but President Trump is really showing great humility in unraveling the original COVID narrative his first term succumbed to," Deace said in a statement to Blaze News.

RELATED: Damning new episode of BlazeTV's 'The Coverup' blows lid off Biden's 10-year pardon for Fauci

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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



Ed Martin, the incoming Department of Justice pardon attorney and director of the DOJ's Weaponization Working Group, announced last week that he was looking into the questionable "autopen" pardons issued in the final days of the Biden White House. It turns out, however, that he began digging into the matter while still the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Martin revealed on Tuesday that his investigation into the use of the autopen has actually been underway for weeks; that he has reached out to members of the Biden family; that some persons of interest have "lawyered up"; and that a whistleblower has already come forward with some troubling allegations.

"I had a whistleblower in my office 10 day ago — senior, senior Democrat — saying, 'Look, it was these three people that controlled access, and they were making money off of it,'" Martin told journalist Mark Halperin on the "2WAY Tonight" show. "I don't know if I believe it yet, but the point is, I think, we have to get to the bottom of it for the American people and to protect the process, and that's what we're doing."

Martin indicated that the whistleblower was involved with the 2020 Biden campaign at the highest levels.

'There's no question that Ed Martin is on the case.'

When pressed on the identity of the three alleged exploiters of the presidential autopen, Martin noted he had to answer carefully. Rather than explicitly identify potential abusers of the autopen, Martin provided Halperin with the names of "gatekeepers" who were "dominant characters in the White House."

Martin identified the following three "gatekeepers": Ron Klain, Biden's White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023 who returned to the fold last year amid Biden's debate preparation; former senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn; and Barack Obama's former personal attorney Robert Bauer.

The DOJ's pardon attorney subsequently threw two more names into the mix — Steve Ricchetti, former counselor to Biden who previously served as chairman of his 2020 presidential campaign, and "obviously Jill [Biden]."

Martin told Halperin that he asked the whistleblower about the involvement of Susan Rice or others, but "they said, 'No, these were the ones.'"

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

The watchdog group later confirmed that "the same exact Biden autopen signature" was used on the pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the Biden clan, and former members of the House Jan. 6 select committee.

These revelations — in conjunction with reports of staffers and family members making decisions on Biden's behalf; evidence that Biden's 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 that a key Biden staffer was suspected of unilaterally making decisions to sign documents as the former president's mental faculties declined — kicked off the firestorm that ultimately prompted the Trump administration to take a closer look.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "There's no question that Ed Martin is on the case. As both the pardon attorney and President Trump's weaponization czar, he is uniquely positioned to answer the question everyone is asking, 'Who was the president during the Biden years?'"

"We are thrilled that the president and Martin are taking up our autopen investigation with such zeal," added Howell.

'They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger.'

Blaze News reached out to the DOJ for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Just hours before Martin shed additional light on the investigation underway, President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that those who exploited former President Joe Biden's cognitive impairment and allegedly "took over the Autopen" were guilty of "TREASON at the Highest Level."

"Joe Biden was not for Open Borders, he never talked about Open Borders, where criminals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes, can flow into our Country at will," wrote the president. "It wasn't his idea to Open the Border, and almost destroy our Country, and cost us Hundreds of Billions of Dollars to get criminals out of our Country, and go through the process we are going through now. It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger."

'This is the biggest scandal in American history.'

Trump added, "Something very severe should happen to these Treasonous Thugs that wanted to destroy our Country, but couldn't, because I came along."

RELATED: Joe Biden was a puppet, not a president. So who signed the pardons?

Photo by Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Newsmax Tuesday that the House Oversight Committee will also look into autopen use in the Biden White House, stating, "We don't believe Joe Biden knew what was going on."

"We're going to try to get to the bottom of this because this is the biggest scandal in American history," said Comer. "Not only do you have a president whose family was on the take from our adversaries around the world, you also have a situation where some of those family members were possibly, and I would go even further and say, probably running the country."

Lindy Li, a former Democratic strategist and fundraiser who served as a surrogate for failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris and worked for the 2020 Biden campaign, identified a potential usurper earlier this year whose name Martin's whistleblower appears to have omitted: Hunter Biden.

Li told the eponymous host of the "Shawn Ryan Show" podcast in February that after Joe Biden's humiliating debate with Trump, Hunter Biden, Jill Biden, and a handful of other unelected senior advisers were effectively serving as a combined shadow president.

Li's suspicions echoed those expressed by Trump to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck in October, namely that Joe Biden was effectively little more than a figurehead for a "committee" of unnamed bureaucrats.

Comer noted further Tuesday, "We don't believe that autopen was authorized by Joe Biden."

"We don't believe that using the autopen makes these executive orders and even these pardons legal," continued Comer. "We're going to do this investigation. Hopefully, it will benefit Trump in court as he tries to do what the American people want done. And that's drain the swamp."

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

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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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Illegal aliens may soon get 'expedited' pardons and commutations in Washington state, perhaps leapfrogging US citizens



Illegal aliens with criminal convictions in Washington state may soon get an "expedited review" of their application for a pardon or commutation from the governor, thanks to a bill passed exclusively by Democrats.

In the last few weeks, both the Washington state House and Senate have passed H.B. 1131, making it ready to send along to the desk of Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson. While the bill addresses a number of issues related to pardons and clemency, it specifically sends those at risk of deportation to the head of the case review line.

"If a petitioner indicates in the petition an urgent need for the pardon or commutation including, but not limited to, a pending deportation order or deportation proceeding, the board shall consider expedited review of the application," it reads.

The bill sailed through the House, 50-46, with no Republicans voting for it and only seven Democrats voting against it. Democrats also carried the bill through the Senate, with 28 voting for it and 19 Republicans opposing it.

'If they’ve paid their dues to society, they shouldn’t be deported.'

The bill is particularly outrageous because it gives illegal aliens and other noncitizens who committed crimes in the U.S. better access to the Washington Clemency and Pardons Board, which has limited availability. As it currently stands, the board is composed of five unpaid members who are able to undertake only about 30 cases per year, according to the Washington State Standard.

Under this bill, incarcerated U.S. citizens seeking a pardon or commutation would apparently have to take a back seat.

"I don’t think what our forefathers envisioned was moving one group above the other when it comes to justice," said state Sen. Leonard Christian (R-Spokane Valley). "Everybody in this state, in this country, deserves equal justice in the same amount of time."

Republican state Rep. Jim Walsh, the chair of the Washington GOP, claimed in a statement to the Post Millennial that H.B. 1131 goes so far as to treat "criminals as if they were victims," an upending of justice that has since become a "recent fashion in 'progressive' circles."

Statements from liberals about H.B. 1131 seem to bear him out.

"If they’ve paid their dues to society, they shouldn’t be deported," claimed state Sen. Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle), who proposed a similar measure in the Senate.

Jennie Pasquarella, legal director of Seattle Clemency Project, noted that all immigration cases, especially those related to deportation, are "very time-sensitive" and implied that noncitizens are therefore more deserving of expedited consideration.

"They can’t wait two years for a hearing," she claimed. "They need, they need the relief right away."

H.B. 1131 'undermines public safety in Washington' and 'puts law-abiding people at risk.'

Pasquarella then made the wild suggestion that noncitizens often commit victimless crimes that aren't that "serious."

"There’s a lot of crimes now that make [deportation] mandatory where there is no victim involved — most people would not consider to be serious — but yet they impose this really drastic consequence," she said.

The Standard indicated that such crimes relate to "drug, theft, and burglary" — "felonies" that the outlet nonetheless characterized as "nonviolent." Approximately 87,000 Americans died of a drug overdose between October 2023 and September 2024.

Of note, between 90% and 95% of criminal cases in the U.S. are resolved via plea bargaining, which often involves defendants pleading guilty to lesser charges. In other words, the offenders may be responsible for other, more severe crimes that at least indirectly involve victims, but prosecutors permit them to accept responsibility for lesser crimes to secure a conviction.

State Rep. Walsh understands the problem well, insisting that H.B. 1131 "undermines public safety in Washington" and "puts law-abiding people at risk."

H.B. 1131 would also expand the review board to 10 members who would be compensated at least for travel expenses related to their board activities.

Blaze News reached out to Gov. Ferguson, inquiring whether he intends to sign the bill, but did not receive a response.

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President Trump says he’s ‘going to take a look at’ fatal Jan. 6 shooting of Ashli Babbitt



President Donald J. Trump said he plans to investigate the “unthinkable” Jan. 6 fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt and why the U.S. Department of Justice is still opposing the $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Aaron Babbitt and Judicial Watch.

In a March 25 interview with Greg Kelly of Newsmax, President Trump said he plans to look into Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who killed Babbitt from a hidden position, allegedly before even establishing whether she was armed or otherwise a threat. Byrd has said he feared for his life.

'She was innocently standing there.'

Kelly noted that Byrd — who is now a captain assigned to a training role making nearly $190,000 a year — was promoted in 2023 and given a medal by the Biden administration in the wake of the fatal shooting.

“I think it’s a disgrace,” President Trump said. “I’m going to take a look at it. I’m going to look at that, too. His reputation was, I won’t even say. Let’s find out about his reputation, OK? We’re going to find out.”

Trump’s comment seemed a likely reference to a letter released in late 2024 by U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who detailed Byrd’s history of alleged aggressive personal behavior and reckless use of his service weapon. Loudermilk, then chairman of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said the records of three disciplinary cases against Byrd were somehow missing.

Writing to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, Loudermilk said Byrd was given $36,000 in unrestricted funds as a “retention bonus” in 2021, while other Capitol Police officers received around $3,000 each. Byrd was reimbursed for more than $21,000 in security upgrades for his personal residence in Prince George’s County, Md.

Manger recently announced his plans to retire, effective May 2.

U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd appears to have his finger on the trigger of his service weapon while walking on the U.S. House floor as rioters broke windows at the House entrance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Graphic overlay by Blaze News

Byrd complained bitterly in emails at the slow pace of an ultimately doomed plan to provide him with cash from the Capitol Police Officers Memorial Fund, Loudermilk’s letter said.

Capitol Police paid to house Byrd at the Joint Base Andrews military facility from July 2021 until late January 2022 at a cost of more than $35,000, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch Inc. When he left the base for any reason, Byrd was provided with a Capitol Police dignitary protection detail, which a source told Blaze News could easily cost $425 per hour.

A Blaze News investigation found that Byrd was recommended for termination for a 2001 incident for reportedly abandoning his post in the House Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom and lying about it to Internal Affairs Division investigators.

House investigators also detailed a case in which Byrd allegedly fired at a fleeing vehicle outside his home, then lied to local police, saying the van was driving directly at him when he fired his Capitol Police service weapon.

— (@)

President Trump indicated he wasn’t aware that the DOJ continues to oppose the $30 million federal wrongful-death lawsuit filed on Jan. 5, 2024.

“I’ll look into that. You’re just telling me that for the first time,” Trump told Kelly. “I haven’t heard that.

“I’m a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, OK?” Trump said. “Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan, and she was innocently standing there — they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd — and a man did something to her that was unthinkable when he shot her. I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to look into that. I did not know that.”

'We’re prepared to fire back at them. We have guns drawn.'

While the legacy media have painted the veteran of 14 years in the U.S. Air Force and several years in the D.C. National Guard as a rioter and insurrectionist, ample video from the hallway where she was shot proves she tried to stop the violence that erupted.

Babbitt shouted at three Capitol Police officers standing outside the Speaker’s Lobby entrance to “call f**king help” as rioter Zachary Alam bashed out the windows leading into the Speaker’s Lobby.

Babbitt eventually put a stop to Alam’s rioting when she planted a left hook on his nose and knocked off his glasses. Seconds later, she tried to climb out a broken window just behind Alam and was immediately shot by Byrd.

Trump’s investigation into the Babbitt shooting will undoubtedly uncover video showing that Byrd didn’t follow through on the shooting by advancing on Babbitt’s position after she fell to determine whether she was an active threat. He fired from a hidden position into a crowd of dozens of people, including seven Capitol Police officers.

Byrd retreated into the seating area of Speaker’s Lobby and within a minute made a false broadcast on police radio claiming that he was under fire and was “prepared to fire back.”

“We got shots fired in the lobby. We got fot [sic], shots fired in the lobby of the House chamber,” Byrd said on Capitol Police radio. “Shots are being fired at us, and we’re prepared to fire back at them. We have guns drawn.”

Ashli Babbitt punches rioter Zachary Jordan Alam in the nose after he smashed out several windows in the entrance to the Speaker's Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was fatally shot seconds later. Blaze News graphic from Sam Montoya photograph. Used with permission.

Aaron Babbitt’s lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch Inc. said that false broadcast delayed medical aid from reaching Ashli Babbitt and created a dangerous situation because incoming officers had no reason to believe this wasn’t still an active-shooter scenario.

“The facts speak truth. Ashli was ambushed when she was shot by Lt. Byrd,” the lawsuit said. “Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, ‘You just murdered her.’ … Lt. Byrd was never charged or otherwise punished or disciplined for Ashli’s homicide.”

After Judicial Watch filed suit in San Diego, where Ashli Babbitt had lived, the DOJ sought and won a judge’s approval to transfer the case to the District of Columbia federal district court. Judicial Watch is attempting to get the case moved back to San Diego. The decision to move the case to D.C. was issued by a judge before Judicial Watch even had a chance to file opposition. A trial in the Babbitt case is set for July 2026.

President Trump will also likely learn about suspicious individuals in the crowd where Babbitt was shot who have still not been identified 50 months after the shooting. Two of the most prominent have been dubbed “Frick and Frack,” who were escorted out of the Capitol and secretly met with Capitol Police near the edge of Capitol property.

President Trump said his decision to issue pardons to more than 1,500 former Jan. 6 defendants was in large part due to the unfair treatment they received from the DOJ and federal courts.

“They were treated so unfairly, so horribly,” Trump said. “Some of them didn’t even go into the building, and the judges, the system, the hatred, the vitriol, the prosecutors — the way they wanted to just destroy these people.”

Trump described how many defendants went into court in hopes of defending themselves, only to emerge “devastated the way they were treated. Devastated, given years in prison.

“I took care of them,” the president said. “I said that I was going to, and I did.”

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Trump promises to pardon Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer



President Donald Trump reportedly confirmed over the weekend that he intends to give a full pardon to Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer, citing the price the former Abercrombie & Fitch model turned fraudster has supposedly paid for exposing the Biden family's apparent corruption.

"He's getting a full pardon," Trump told the New York Post's Miranda Devine on Sunday. "He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people."

Souring on the Bidens

Together, Archer and Hunter Biden co-founded the investment firm Rosemont Seneca with John Kerry's stepson Christopher Heinz; co-established a China-backed investment fund called BHR partners; and joined the board of the scandal-plagued and now-defunct Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings.

Over the decade he worked with Hunter Biden, Archer learned a great deal about the convicted felon's shady business dealings and character. Text messages found on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop indicate that Archer may have also soured on the Biden family when its patriarch refused to help him with his fraud charges.

Archer was convicted in 2018 for the fraudulent issuance and sale of over $60 million of tribal bonds.

'It's the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world.'

While Archer and two other Burnham Financial Group executives were found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud, Hunter Biden — who was the vice chairman of Burnham and raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars — was not similarly charged in the fraud scheme.

Archer's conviction was overturned but then later upheld by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Archer's case last year.

After the Biden Department of Justice appealed the overturning of his conviction in 2018, Archer allegedly wrote to Hunter Biden, asking, "Why did your dad's administration appointees arrest me and try to put me in jail? Just curious. Some of our partners asking out here."

"Why would they try to ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family's side step in and at least try to help me. I don't get it," Archer allegedly wrote. "And I'm depressed. Bunch of these [Asian partners] getting in my head asking me the same so just curious what I should answer."

Hunter Biden reportedly responded by text, "Every president's family is held to a higher standard [and] a target. It's the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world. It's why our democracy remains viable. It's unfair at times but in the end the system of justice usually works and like you we are redeemed and the truth prevails. The unfairness to us allows for the greater good."

"Every great family is persecuted prosecuted in the U.S. — you are part of a great family — not a side show not deserted by them even in your darkest moments," Hunter Biden allegedly texted. "That's the way Bidens are different and you are a Biden. It's the price of power."

Evidently, Hunter Biden's textual pep talk didn't cut it.

Informing on the Bidens

Archer proved more than willing to furnish congressional investigators and the media with insights into Joe Biden's involvement in his son's overseas dealings — dealings the former president repeatedly claimed he had nothing to do with — as well as into why Joe Biden may have leveraged $1 billion in U.S. aid to get a top Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating corruption fired.

'I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me.'

Whereas Biden claimed in 2019, "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings," Archer told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in 2023 that the former Democratic president spoke to his son and to his son's business partners on numerous occasions and was "the brand" Hunter Biden trafficked in.

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) underscored that Archer's testimony was "critical to the Committee's investigation."

Clean slate

"A full pardon," Trump reiterated to Devine on Sunday, characterizing Archer as an "anti-Biden person."

Archer, who reportedly met Trump in Philadelphia on Saturday at the NCAA wrestling championships, told the Post, "I want to extend my deepest thanks to President Trump."

"I am grateful to the president for recognizing that I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me," continued Archer. "Like so many people, my life was devastated by the Biden family's selfish disregard for the truth and for the peace of mind and happiness of others. The Bidens talk about justice, but they don't mean it."

Archer was originally sentenced to serve a year and a day in prison and ordered to forfeit $15.7 million and pay $43.4 million in restitution. Archer's sentence was, however, overturned on a technicality, and he was set for a resentencing later this year.

Now it appears that the former Burisma Holdings board member whom Hunter Biden characterized as family will get off scot-free.

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Is Fauci pardon legitimate? Autopen signatures cast doubt on legality of Biden docs.



Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and others with questionable track records received controversial pardons just prior to Joe Biden leaving office.

New signature analysis conducted by the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project indicates that the "same exact Biden autopen signature" appeared on each of these pardons.

This revelation regarding the use of an automatic signature device, coupled with evidence of Biden's diminished agency while in office and previous allegations concerning his sidelining, has prompted some critics to wonder who was actually dispensing pardons as well as about the validity of the controversial pardons.

Contrary to CNN's assertion last year that the use of the autopen was "a rarity in the Biden administration," the Oversight Project reported Thursday that nearly every executive order, pardon, and other consequential document researchers could find from Biden's presidency bore a machine-generated signature.

While other presidents, including Donald Trump and Barack Obama, have used the so-called autopen, there are indications that document signings during Biden's tenure were repeatedly undertaken while he was absent — not only in body but possibly also in mind.

The Oversight Project indicated that in one instance, Biden's oft-used autopen signature appeared on the pardons for a murderer and five other criminals that were issued while the then-president was vacationing and golfing in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The pardons all reportedly indicated that they were signed "at the City of Washington."

'The autopen findings could open up legal challenges.'

The White House acknowledged that the Federal Aviation Administration funding extension was signed in May 2024 using an autopen. It was suggested that Biden, traveling in San Francisco at the time, had sought to avoid a lapse in funding and was cognizant of this taking place.

Biden has, however, cast doubt on whether he was always in the loop when documents were being signed in his name.

The former president allegedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) that he did not remember signing a January 2024 order to pause decisions on exports of liquefied natural gas. This suggestion fueled suspicions that one or more individuals in Biden's orbit had usurped presidential powers.

"The main legal question here is who was the president over the last four years," Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell previously told Blaze News. "That's what we are aiming to uncover. 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."

The Oversight Project emphasized on X that "WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY."

On Jan. 20, just hours before leaving the Oval Office, Biden allegedly issued a number of pardons, citing the need to protect the recipients from potential "revenge" by the incoming Trump administration.

Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom Trump has accused of committing "treason," nabbed a pardon, as did several members of Biden's family who were apparently involved in sleazy foreign deals with the former president and his felonious son Hunter Biden; Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, California Sen. Adam Schiff (D), and other members of the Jan. 6 committee; D.C. Metro Police officers who testified before the Jan. 6 committee; and Gerald Lundergan, the former head of the Kentucky state Democratic Party who served as state chair for Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign and was convicted in 2019 of making illegal campaign contributions.

'It appears staffers and officers in the Biden administration may have exploited Biden's incapacity.'

Fauci, the fifth director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also among the pardonees, 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.

Despite the pardon, a coalition of state attorneys general indicated last month that they still want to hold Fauci accountable for "alleged mismanagement, misleading statements, and suppression of scientific debate."

Fauci, like the others, might be more exposed than the state attorneys general may have originally thought.

After demonstrating that the signature on the pardons was identical, the Oversight Projected noted, "The autopen findings could open up legal challenges to the validity of Biden's pardons in a court of law. The U.S. Constitution requires a president be 'present' for all legal signatures."

The Oversight Project indicated that with the exception of the Democrat's announcement indicating that he was dropping out of the 2024 race, every document researchers could find bearing Biden's signature "used the same autopen signature."

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said of the watchdog group's finding, "On the plus side, we can say we lived under America's first robot president."

Howell posed the question, "What should happen to these 'pardons'?" then indicated with a brief video that they should be torn up.

President Trump's U.S. envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, stated, "Biden didn't sign the pardons."

Blaze News previously reported that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has called on the Department of Justice to launch a full investigation into the legality of Biden's presidential actions in light of his apparent mental decline.

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"Under the 25th Amendment, his inability to make decisions should have meant a succession of power," Bailey noted in his letter. "Instead, it appears staffers and officers in the Biden administration may have exploited Biden's incapacity so they could issue orders without an accountable President of sound mind approving them."

"It is black-letter law that a document is void, ab initio, when the person signing it lacks mental capacity," added Bailey.

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