United States President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation of Joe Biden’s actions as president, alleging aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline” and raising doubts over his use of an autopen to sign documents.
The investigation, announced Wednesday, is the latest escalation in Trump’s long-running campaign to discredit the former president by claiming he was mentally incompetent, and suggesting his use of a mechanical pen made his orders invalid.
The probe was announced in a presidential memorandum directing Trump’s White House counsel David Warrington and Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into whether “certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President”.
The memo claimed that Biden’s aides “abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline”.
“The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,” the memo stated, describing the alleged “conspiracy” as “one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history”.
Biden slams allegations
Biden, who revealed last month he is fighting cancer, said the allegations were “ridiculous” and suggested Trump’s claims were a smokescreen to deflect attention away from a bill that would extend tax cuts for the rich.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” the 82-year-old said in a statement.
His aides said using mechanical pens was a well established legal practice to sign presidential documents. The US Justice Department has recognised the use of an autopen to sign legislation and issue pardons for decades, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Trump repeatedly attacked Biden during his 2024 presidential campaign as lacking the mental acuity to hold top office.
While Biden’s aides strongly rejected the allegations during his time in office, his poor performance during a debate on the campaign trail prompted public perceptions that he was not up to the job, and he later bowed out of the race.
Trump has frequently called for his opponents to be investigated, and has directed the US Justice Department to probe his critics in the past.
Biden issued pardons for his brothers and sister shortly before leaving office, in a bid to shield them from potential retribution under Trump, who has falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential race he lost to Biden was rigged.
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