Wed Oct 29 04:40:00 UTC 2025: ## GOP Committee Alleges Biden Suffered Cognitive Decline, Questions Pardons
Washington, D.C. – A Republican-led House Oversight Committee is questioning the validity of pardons and commutations signed by former President Joe Biden, alleging he experienced significant cognitive decline while in office. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the committee urged an investigation into whether Biden was aware of the substance of clemency actions signed via autopen.
The committee’s findings are detailed in a 93-page report following a months-long investigation. Republicans assert that there was a “cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” and a lack of clear records demonstrating Biden himself made all of the executive decisions attributed to him. They claim Biden aides colluded to mislead the public.
The committee also sent a letter to the Board of Medicine for Washington, DC, requesting that it investigate Biden’s former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor.
Key evidence cited includes excerpts of interviews with 14 former senior Biden aides, though the report lacks direct evidence that anyone other than Biden made the decisions. Instead, Republicans point to the absence of records conclusively proving Biden was the decision-maker. The committee did not subpoena Biden to testify.
Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the House Oversight committee, dismissed the report as a “sham investigation,” stating, “every White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States.” He emphasized that the testimonies confirm Biden authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen.
Biden aides defended the process for using the autopen and insisted that Biden made his own decisions. A Biden spokesperson stated, “This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency.”
The committee’s letter specifically calls for further investigation into three top Biden White House aides who invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify.
Legal experts say undoing a pardon issued by a past president will likely face significant legal challenges; there is no mechanism or precedent to reverse a pardon issued by a past president.
Ed Martin, the Trump-installed Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department, has been examining Biden’s past pardons and told Comer that his “ongoing investigation” of the way that pardons and commutations were issued during Biden’s presidency had revealed “abuses” of the process by “political actors.” He wrote that his office would not defend any of the acts of clemency “without further investigation.”
The probe was to include “who authorized its use, and the validity of the resulting Presidential policy decisions.”
As president, Biden issued pardons and commutations to 4,245 people – more acts of clemency than any other president.
In 2005, during the second Bush administration, the Justice Department looked at the legality of a president’s use of the autopen and endorsed it – so long as the decision came from the president.
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