US President Trump dismisses Biden’s January 6 pardons as ‘void’ and ‘vacant’
US President Donald Trump said that the presidential pardons issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, to members of the US House Select Committee in relation to the January 6 Attack are “void, vacant, and of no further force or effect” in a Truth Social post on Monday morning.
The committee, which Trump referred to in his post as the “Unselect Committee of Political Thugs,” was chosen to investigate the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump’s reasoning for overriding the pardon is his claim that they were signed by autopen, a device that automatically reproduces a person’s signature.
The US leader further accused Biden of not approving or even knowing about the pardons and claimed that others were involved in providing, approving, and signing the pardoning documents.
Trump added they may have “committed a crime” by doing so.
Trump also noted that the January 6 Attack committee “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,” accusing them of being responsible for the pardons that were signed on their behalf.
The US leader concluded his post by saying that his predecessor, Biden, was the “worst president in the history” of the United States.
Mocking the preceding president
Trump also made a separate post, attaching a photo of three presidential portraits representing the last three US administrations, where the first and third portraits in the photo are of himself, with the middle portrait being an autopen instead of Biden. He then pinned the post in his profile. Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk also shared the post on their X/Twitter accounts.
The US House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack was formed in July 2021 and disbanded at the beginning of 2023. The members were comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans in the US House of Representatives from 2021-2023, which included Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson, Zoe Lofgren, Pete Aguilar, Stephanie Murphy, Jamie Raskin, Elaine Luria, and Adam Kinzinger.
A source from the Biden administration told the New York Post on Friday that an aide to then-president Biden “may have made unilateral determinations” on what documents to utilize the autopen.