WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has fixated so much on his predecessor's use of the autopen during his presidency to sign official documents that he called for an investigation this week into former President Joe Biden's reliance on the mechanical device.
Presidential use of the autopen has not been outlawed or ruled unconstitutional. And Trump himself has acknowledged allowing his staff to use it to sign letters on his behalf.
Yet the president has come down repeatedly on Biden for using an autopen amid fresh allegations that the ex-president's health was in decline while he was in office. He has accused former White House aides, without evidence, of signing documents, including presidential pardons, without Biden's knowledge.
"Whoever used the autopen was the president," he told reporters on June 5, implying aides were assuming the role of commander-in-chief. "And that is wrong, it's illegal, it's so bad."
Presidents are thought to have employed the autopen for more than 200 years, since the time of Thomas Jefferson, who obtained one of the machines after it came under patent in 1803, according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation.
