Comer calls for Biden autopen actions to be held ‘null and void’ in House Oversight Committee report

(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Republicans released a blistering report Tuesday morning that details their findings into former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and his use of the autopen — calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all executive actions taken during the prior administration, as well as scrutinize the actions of three senior officials who refused to comply with the panel’s closed-door interviews for fear of criminal prosecution.

Democrats quickly dismissed the report as a “sham” — with Biden’s post-presidency office calling it “baseless.”

The 100-page report includes links to transcripts and video of their closed-door depositions conducted with 14 top Biden administration officials, including three senior officials — Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini and Dr. Kevin O’Connor — who invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves rather than answer the committee’s questions.

The committee previously released videos of those three officials declining to testify following their respective depositions. Other aides repeatedly defended Biden’s mental fitness, maintaining that he was mentally engaged in the decision-making process in the White House.

“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” Oversight Chairman James Comer said in a statement.

Comer claimed Biden’s inner circle “sought to deceive the public” and conceal “his decline.” He said the report reveals how several of Biden’s aides “colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished.”

A Biden spokesperson criticized the report, claiming there was no wrongdoing at the Biden White House.

“This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency. There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing,” the Biden spokesperson said. “Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown.”

Biden has previously defended the use of autopen.

“The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump. But the point is that, you know, we’re talking about a whole lot of people,” Biden said.

Comer said that executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen should be “null and void.”

“We have provided Americans with transparency about the Biden Autopen Presidency, and now there must be accountability,” Comer stated.

Comer’s comments echo some of President Donald Trump’s remarks about Biden’s use of autopen — including saying that the pardons Biden approved should be voided because they were signed using an autopen. Trump has said he has used an autopen for some trivial matters, but criticized its use for pardons.

The House committee claimed it found “substantial evidence” that Biden “experienced significant mental and physical decline during his presidency,” while senior White House officials “actively sought to conceal his deterioration from the public.”

Bondi said in a Tuesday post on X that her staff has “already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons” and called the report “extremely helpful.”

Speaker Mike Johnson commented on the report Tuesday morning, repeating Comer’s calls to void “every executive action signed by the autopen without written authorization from President Biden.”

“This is an unprecedented situation in American politics and government,” Johnson said Tuesday when asked whether documents signed by the autopen on Biden’s behalf should be “null and void,” as the report concluded. “There is no legal precedent because no previous president … had the audacity to have people signing things on their behalf when they didn’t even know what was in it.”

Oversight Democrats have dismissed the investigation throughout the monthslong probe — complaining about the GOP’s “obsession” with the former president.

“Despite this sham investigation, every White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States. The testimonies also make it clear the former President authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen,” House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement to ABC News.

House Oversight Democrats released a short 14-page counter report on Tuesday — arguing that the Republicans have “failed to produce any evidence to support their allegations against President Biden.”

Trump has continued to criticize and troll Biden’s use of the autopen — even hanging a picture of an autopen signing Biden’s signature alongside portraits of past presidents in the new Presidential Walk of Fame on the White House West Colonnade.

The committee also sent a letter to Dr. Andrea Anderson, chair of the District of Columbia Board of Medicine, calling on her to investigate whether the actions of O’Connor, Biden’s White House physician, should disqualify him from future practice in the nation’s capital.

“Based on the nature and extent of Dr. O’Connor’s actions, the Committee recommends that the Board of Medicine impose discipline, sanction, or revocation of his medical license,” the letter states. “If Dr. O’Connor failed to meet his minimum standard of care to the president, intentionally misled the American public, or authored false health reports on President Biden, then the Committee believes Dr. O’Connor should be barred from the practice of medicine in the District of Columbia.”

ABC News has reached out to O’Connor’s lawyer for comment.

When O’Connor spoke before the committee, his lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the doctor “asserted the physician-patient privilege, as well as his right under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in declining to answer questions from the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding his service as Physician to the President during the Biden Administration.”

Oversight Republicans also knocked Democrats for passive participation in the investigation — clocking the total time of their questioning to “only about 3 hours and 30 minutes’ worth of questions” over nearly 47 hours of depositions and transcribed interviews.

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