Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas dropped a bomb on Democrats’ denials about the autopen scandal and argued that many of the decisions ascribed to the former president could be “null and void.”
Cruz made the statements on his podcast as congressional Republicans continue their investigation into claims that former President Joe Biden’s health condition prevented him from officially making decisions attributed to him by staff.
‘An unelected aide running an autopen does not have the power to grant a pardon under the United States Constitution.’
Biden has come out to publicly address the controversy and deny the allegations, but Cruz argues that his denial actually undermines his argument.
“I think the Trump White House needs to go through the records … and examine what specifically has a paper trail that showed Biden signed off on the specific action. And those that there is no paper trail, that there is no evidence … those are null and void,” said Cruz.
He cited an explanation made by Biden and his aides to the New York Times on the process of issuing pardons by autopen.
“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed,” the Times reported.
Rather than individually consider each case, Biden drew up criteria for pardons, and the Bureau of Prisons provided a list of people who met the requirements he set out. The staff then signed the pardons through autopen, which they saw as a “routine procedure,” according to the account in the Times.
Cruz argues this means that the pardons were improperly signed and should be challenged.
“Those have no legal force, and my recommendation to [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice is they should look specifically at the most vulnerable and devise and implement a legal challenge to challenge these,” Cruz added, “and make clear that an unelected aide running an autopen does not have the power to grant a pardon under the United States Constitution.”
Biden has forcefully lambasted the accusations.
“They’re liars. They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly,” he said to the Times.
“They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing,” he added.
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The post Ted Cruz says Biden accidentally undermined his own defense of autopen scandal appeared first on TheBlaze.
