Appearing for an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, delivered some good news for President Donald Trump, noting to the show host that the president has firm authority to undo and cancel the executive orders issued by the Biden Administration via autopen.
As background, the president announced on Truth Social that all of the Biden autopen documents are being terminated, saying, “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.”
Speaking to Rep. Comer about the announcement, “Hannity” guest host Jason Chaffetz said, “Set aside the signatures on public laws. If you look at the universe, 88% of the time during a four-year period, evidently the president, it appears, used an autopen. And you’re right, it’s those unauthorized because publicly, the president had said, President Biden, that it was for people that, you know, on pardons and whatnot. This is for people who had committed nonviolent crimes.”
Continuing, he added, “But there were several people who committed violent crimes, murders in fact, that were actually released or had their death sentences diminished. That’s what’s so stunning. It was a total complete different than what the president was saying publicly. And it begs the question, did he truly authorize it?”
Responding, Rep. Comer told Chaffetz that it appeared that President Biden had been uninvolved with the pardons, saying, “Right. We never found any evidence other than the very last person we brought in, Jeff Zients, who I’m sure he communicated with everyone else that we brought in. He knew the questions we were asking. No one could say, ‘Yes, Joe Biden told me to sign this document with my name. Yes, I participated in a meeting with Joe Biden where we discussed this executive order or we discussed this person’s pardon.’”
Continuing, the congressman explained that there appears to have been a concerted effort to keep President Biden out of the process, saying, “No one, his inner circle we brought in all of his inner circle, some of whom pled the Fifth Amendment wouldn’t even answer the questions but those who did other than Jeff Zients, the very last person, no one could say it. Now, we didn’t bring Joe Biden in. Many believe she was the one that was making a lot of decisions. It doesn’t matter. What matters, Jason, is that Joe Biden wasn’t a part of the process.”
Noting that only the president has the constitutional authority to issue pardons, and thus those who used the autopen to issue pardons despite Biden not knowing did so illegally, saying, “And the Constitution is clear. No one has the authority to issue a pardon other than the president of the United States. The vice president doesn’t have that authority. The chief of staff does not have the authority. And the first lady does not have the authority.”
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Concluding, he added that the courts will have to approve President Trump’s cancellation of the autopen-signed executive actions, saying, “So, I applaud what President Trump did today. I think this will end up in court and I think our investigative work, the report that the House Oversight Committee published will serve as the basis of evidence that will help us win this in court and help President Trump to sustain this executive order.”
Watch Comer here: