by John Solomon
“We've handed this to Pam Bondi on a silver platter. We've done all the heavy lifting,” the House Oversight Committee Chairman tells Just the News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has opened an inquiry into former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen and promised accountability after Congress released a bombshell report accusing his administration of a coverup and declaring some of his pardons and executive actions legally invalid.
Bondi on Tuesday credited House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer for assembling fresh evidence about Biden's mental faculties and actions in the waning months of his presidency.
"My team has already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons," Bondi wrote on X. "@RepJamesComer’s new information is extremely helpful, and his leadership on this issue is invaluable. We’ll continue working with @GOPoversight to deliver accountability for the American people.
Comer urged Bondi to invalidate all of Biden’s pardons and executive orders signed by autopen at the end of his presidency, saying there was ample evidence the former president did not follow the law and was unaware of actions being taken in his name by staff.
“We've handed this to Pam Bondi on a silver platter. We've done all the heavy lifting,” Comer, R-Ky., said in a wide-ranging interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show. “We've done the depositions. We've combed through the emails. I mean, this is the hard, tedious work of an investigation.
“Now it's up to her to bring these people in,” he added. “If there's anything in the report that's inaccurate, if there's anything in the deposition that we reported that are mischaracterized, then now here's your opportunity to try to defend the other position. If not, then the report is 100% accurate, and the pardons need to be declared null and void.”
Comer talked to Just the News just hours after his committee released a bombshell report declaring it believed many of Biden’s executive actions were legally “invalid,” asking the Justice Department to investigate its findings and accusing Biden aides of covering up the former president’s mental decline until after he left office.
The report did not detail specifically which pardons or orders the committee believed were invalid.
But in his interview, Comer laid out a clear standard for Bondi’s DOJ to use.
“I think all the pardons should be declared null and void that were signed with the auto pen,” he said. “These were all done during the lame duck period when, when Joe Biden was checked out. I think the executive orders that were done during the lame duck period should be declared null and void.
Comer explained why those actions should be voided by the Trump DOJ.
“I think anything that's a legal document the president should have to sign,” he told Just the News. “Obviously, you're going to use the auto pen for certificates of achievement, for mass letters, for correspondence. But with respect to legal documents, a pardon, a presidential pardon is a powerful thing
“ If the President himself can't physically sign that pardon, there has to be a reason. Either the President didn't evaluate the pardon, or the president wasn't in a mental or physical shape to be able to sign his name,” he added. “And you know that's what we had here with Joe Biden.”
Biden’s office dismissed Comer’s findings in a statement but the former president himself admitted in a New York Times interview this summer he did not specifically approve each pardon granted near the end of his presidency, something Comer seized on Tuesday evening.
“One person has this authority, and that one person is the President United States,” the chaiman said. “It's not the Chief of Staff. It's not the Vice President, not the First Lady, It's the president United States. It's the last check and balance in our judicial system.
“And what we found was Joe Biden, even by his own admission with the New York Times interview, didn't evaluate all those pardons. Every process was different,” he added.
Comer said he also was troubled that evidence uncovered by his committee showed that former first son Hunter Biden – who was ensnared in a foreign influence-peddling scandal and convicted of tax and gun crimes before his father pardoned him -- attended many meetings where pardon requests were reviewed at the end of the Biden presidency.
“I think the Department justice could go a lot further. I mean, to have Hunter Biden in the room talking about any pardons. I mean, that's pretty bad in itself,” Comer said. “But a guy that we proved … was taking money from our adversaries around the world, peddling access for his father's position as vice president of the United States, having him in the room when you're issuing thousands of Pardons with the autopen. I mean, that's suspicious in itself.”
John Solomon
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/house-chairman-comer-calls-ag-bondi-invalidate-all-biden-pardons-orders-signed
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