There is mounting evidence that Joe Biden was president in name only during much of his time in office. In his stead, a cabal of top White House staffers appears to have secretly operated a de facto presidency, making crucial decisions without a shred of constitutional authority.  

If proven true, it would call into question the validity of pardons and executive orders issued under his name but without his knowledge or consent. For this reason, it is imperative that Biden’s closest advisers answer questions under oath and others in his orbit be forced to disclose what they knew or observed.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation into the pardons, commutations and clemencies granted in the waning days of Biden’s presidency, including preemptive pardons gifted to a half dozen members of his own family along with his shifty son, Hunter Biden. The probe focuses on whether the elder Biden was competent and whether others were taking advantage of his seemingly diminished mental state.  

At the same time, the House Oversight Committee is intensifying its own inquiry into the alleged ‘cover-up’ of Biden’s cognitive decline. Of particular interest in both investigations is ‘the potential unauthorized use of autopen’ for many executive actions, said Oversight Chairman James Comer.

Did rogue actors commandeer the device from a clueless Biden to advance their own political and personal agendas? Was national security jeopardized in the process? Let’s call it, ‘The Case of the Runaway Autopen.’ Solving it won’t be easy, given Washington’s proclivity for concealment, deception, obstruction and lies.       

Comer has requested that five former Biden aides, including his physician Kevin O’Connor, sit down for transcribed interviews.  If they resist, subpoenas will be issued. While Biden might assert Executive Privilege to keep them mum, President Trump could override the privilege just as Biden did to Trump after his first term. Assuming he is sentient, Joe might now wish he had not done so.  

The issue of whether pardons and executive orders could be invalidated is not as simple as some legal experts have opined. They assert, for example, that nothing can be done because there is no constitutional mechanism to revoke or overturn pardons once granted. That is only half true.

There is a well-established legal basis for annulling documents. It is founded in common law.  It is called fraud. Under statutory law, it is known as forgery. (See 18 USC 471 and 495). Each are crimes that would render the signed instruments inoperative and unenforceable.    

Just ask the U.S. Supreme Court, which long ago declared unanimously, ‘There is no question of the general doctrine that fraud vitiates the most solemn contracts, documents, and even judgments.’ (United States v. Throckmorton, 98 US 61, (1878))  There exists no exception for presidential documents.  

But let’s back up.

An autopen is a mechanical device that activates a robotic arm with a pen attached. It imitates a person’s signature, although it is identifiable by a consistent impression on the paper. Past presidents have utilized the autopen for a variety of documents. It is perfectly legal but with an important caveat —there must be consent by the purported ‘signator.’ In this case, that’s Biden.     

If the 46th president never consented or, worse, had no knowledge of the autopen’s use for any given document bearing his signature, it could be deemed null and void under law. If Biden was not even competent or mentally fit to provide knowing consent, the result is the same. 

Two decades ago, the Justice Department formally approved presidential deployment of the autopen, but only if a President personally ‘directs’ a subordinate to affix his signature to a specified document. However, the DOJ cautioned that the chief executive may never ‘delegate’ the actual decision to approve and sign any document with the device. That right rests exclusively with a president.   

The sheer volume of suspected Biden autopen usage merits closer scrutiny. The growing number of descriptive accounts of his worsening mental infirmities and incoherence magnifies the need for an intensive investigation. 

If his aides deliberately obscured their boss’s health problems, did they also circumvent his permission for orders issued under his name? Did they act on their own because they knew Biden was not cognizant or otherwise feared his confused response? Americans deserve honest answers. But expecting to get them from highly secretive political operatives is fanciful at best.

House Speaker Mike Johnson recently recounted his first private meeting with Biden last year during which the President had no idea that he signed an executive order weeks earlier pausing the exports of liquified natural gas. When Johnson pressed him, a stunned Biden insisted, ‘I didn’t do that!’ The speaker patiently explained that he did and a copy could be retrieved, yet the President insisted, ‘No, I didn’t do that.’  

‘He genuinely did not know what he had signed,’ said Johnson later. ‘And I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble —who is running the country?’ Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know.’  

It is possible that the executive order was signed by autopen without the consent or knowledge of the president. In the alternative, did Biden sign something that he was incapable of understanding? Perhaps his aides willfully misrepresented its contents. Or maybe Biden was so mentally impaired that he couldn’t remember what he had for breakfast, much less having signed an export ban that cratered American GDP by upwards of $200 billion.

It is beyond curious that the preemptive pardons handed out like Halloween candy to Dr. Anthony Fauci, members of the J-6 committee and six of Biden’s immediate relatives all bear the unique marks of an autopen. By contrast, Hunter Biden’s pardon almost certainly resembles his father’s genuine and shaky signature. Why the difference? Did Biden verily approve or direct the group pardons? Or did someone command the autopen without assent?

There is substantial and compelling evidence that Biden was sliding further and further into mental decay as his presidency progressed. Americans are right to wonder just who was running the country. Biden himself seemed to answer the question during several of his rare public outings.  

In one memorable appearance he said, ‘Sorry, but I’ll get in trouble with my staff if I don’t do this the right way.’  In another, a confused Biden turned to staffers and asked, ‘Am I allowed to take questions? Where’s my staff?’ On a still another occasion he mumbled with regret, ‘I thought when I got to be President, I’d get to do things I wanted to do, but my staff tells me what I can’t do.’ These are stunning confessionals.   

There is no need to recite the myriad of instances where Americans witnessed a faltering and enfeebled Biden wandering around a stage lost and bewildered. He was not ‘compos mentis.’ His mental faculties dwindled. His ability to think and communicate vanished. It all came crashing down on the night of June 27, 2024. The disastrous presidential debate reinforced the truth of his withering condition.     

It is increasingly apparent that a coterie of unelected White House aides who connived to hide Biden’s declining state were the ones making vital decisions behind the scenes. They reportedly called themselves the ‘Politburo,’ a nod to the ruling committee of the communist party in the former Soviet Union. The symmetry is not coincidental; it is revealing. They maneuvered and manipulated in a culture of dishonesty.

With Biden mentally incapable of fully performing the demanding duties of his high office, it seems that others took it upon themselves to arrogate his authority. This would constitute a shameful abuse of power that contravenes our constitutional framework. It merits comprehensive investigations by both Congress and the Department of Justice.

In responding to the probes, Biden issued a statement on Wednesday insisting, ‘I made the decisions about pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,’ adding that ‘any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.’ The denial is no surprise. But is it more of the same pretense and cover-up that came to define his presidency? Did Joe even write that statement?

Almost five years ago in my August 2020 podcast, I warned that if Joe Biden was elected, he would become a ‘Marionette President’ controlled by unscrupulous White House puppeteers making critical decisions for the nation. I wasn’t prescient, only paying attention to what was plainly visible.

What is so confounding —and equally alarming— is how long the deceitful charade lasted. As it slowly unravels, we are reminded that calculating lies rarely endure the engine of truth.

Elon Musk’s diatribe against President Donald Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ continued Wednesday as Senate Republicans embarked on their own course to tweak and reshape the gargantuan legislative package.

The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rehashed a similar talking point from his takedown of a previous House GOP government funding bill in December, which, after his input, was gutted and reworked.

The nation’s debt sits at over $36 trillion, according to FOX Business’ National Debt Tracker.

‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,’ Musk said among a flurry of posts on X. ‘Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.’

Though Musk’s continued tirade against the bill sent House Republicans into a tizzy, on the other side of the Capitol, senators were busy hashing out the finer points of the legislation.

This time around, Musk, who just ended his four-month tenure as a special government employee rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, may not have the same level of impact, given that senators want their chance to shape the bill.

‘I mean, if Elon was going to give me advice on how to get to the moon, I’d listen,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. ‘You know, if he was going to give me advice on how to raise several billion dollars from other billionaires, I’d listen.’

‘But… he doesn’t govern, you know, and so, to be honest, Elon, he’s not that big a factor,’ he continued. ‘I know he’s a glamorous sort of celebrity, but he’s not a big factor.’

Cramer’s comments came after Senate Republicans heard from the chairs of the Senate Banking, Armed Services and Commerce committees on how they would approach their respective portions of the megabill in a closed-door meeting.

After that meeting, members of the Senate Finance Committee, which will handle the tax portion of the package, met with Trump later to shore up support for the tax package.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R.-Kan., said that the president’s main message during the meeting was to ‘pass the damn bill’ with as few changes as possible. When asked if Trump seemed concerned about Musk’s impact on the bill’s fate, the lawmaker said ‘absolutely not.’  

‘It was almost laugh— more of a laughing conversation for 30 seconds,’ he said. ‘It was very much in jest and laughing, and I think he said something positive about Elon, appreciating what he did for the country.’

Congressional Republicans intend to use the budget reconciliation process to skirt the Senate filibuster, meaning they do not need Senate Democrats to pass the package. However, they do need at least 51 Senate Republicans to get on board.

The Senate’s shot at tinkering with the reconciliation package comes after months of deliberations and negotiations in the House that culminated in a package that Trump has thrown his full support behind.

Some lawmakers want higher spending cuts to the tune of $2 trillion, others want a full rollback to pre-pandemic spending. Then there are pockets of resistance solidifying around cuts to Medicaid and green energy tax credit provisions baked into the House’s offering.

Among the green energy provisions on the chopping block are electric vehicle tax credits. Speculation has swirled that their proposed demise could be the driving force, in part, behind Musk’s anger toward the bill.

‘Any senator with a brain sees Elon’s comments for what they are, a CEO worried about losing business,’ a Senate Republican source told Fox News Digital. ‘The only reason he’s causing a fuss is because we’re getting rid of pork that benefits his electric car company.’

Musk had been pushing for deeper spending cuts until his new demand that the bill be nuked. Currently, the House GOP’s offering sets a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade that, coupled with expected growth, would help offset the roughly $4 trillion price tag of making the president’s first-term tax cuts permanent.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, engaged with some of Musk’s posts on Tuesday and appeared to agree with the tech billionaire’s position that the bill had to go further to cut spending.

‘I think most of what he’s saying is he would like it to do more and be more aggressive to try to address the debt and deficit problem,’ Lee said.

However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in its latest report that the bill would only cut $1.3 trillion, reduce revenues by roughly $3.7 trillion and add in the neighborhood of $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

Some lawmakers who had found common ground with Musk’s earlier anger with the ‘big, beautiful bill’ still found a common ally on the second day of his rant.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reiterated to Fox News Digital that he shared Musk’s ‘skepticism’ of the bill. He would not say whether he agreed that congressional Republicans should start from scratch, but noted that his main objection to the bill was a plan to increase the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion.

‘My main goal is to say, take the debt ceiling and make it a separate vote, and then vote on a separate bill, and then there’s still a need for less spending,’ he said. ‘But I would be very open to supporting the bill if we had more spending cuts and the debt ceiling was a separate vote.’

Former President Joe Biden doubled down on his use of an autopen on Wednesday, insisting that he was in control of the White House during his term in office.

President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into Biden’s administration, alleging that top officials used autopen signatures to cover up the former president’s cognitive decline.

‘I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,’ Biden said in a statement.

‘This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,’ he added.

Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to open investigations into top Biden officials on Wednesday, arguing they may have conspired to deceive the public about his mental state and exercised presidential authority through the autopen use.

Trump wrote in a Wednesday memo that the U.S. president has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through his signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

‘In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,’ Trump wrote. ‘This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. 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.’

‘Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,’ he added.

House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was ‘open’ to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report

Less than a week after leaving his position as head of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk is calling on Americans to urge their senators and representatives to ‘kill’ the ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Musk has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,, claiming that if passed, it would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $5 billion.

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk posted an image of the 2003 Uma Thurman movie ‘Kill Bill,’ appearing to reference his call to nix the Trump-backed bill.

‘We need a new bill that doesn’t grow the deficit,’ Musk said on X. 

In another post, Musk urged: ‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.’ 

Musk said Tuesday afternoon that he ‘just can’t stand it anymore.’

‘This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,’ Musk said. ‘Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.’

Musk previously criticized the bill during an interview with CBS, noting he was ‘disappointed’ in the spending bill because ‘it undermines’ all the work his DOGE team was doing.

The bill passed the House in late May, ahead of Memorial Day, largely along party lines. However, two Republicans did vote against the measure, citing insufficient spending cuts and a rising national debt. GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has also signaled he likely will not vote in favor of the bill in its current form, citing a debt ceiling increase that is a red line for him. 

Trump has lashed out at Paul and others for opposing the bill, but so far he has taken a more measured approach to Musk’s criticism.

‘Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing when asked about Musk’s most recent criticism.

‘It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it,’ she said. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is rebuffing Elon Musk’s call for a brand-new budget reconciliation bill, deepening the tech billionaire’s rift with Republicans in Washington.

‘A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS,’ Musk wrote on X Wednesday.

He ratcheted up his rhetoric shortly after, posting, ‘KILL the BILL.’

But Johnson said the timeline was working against Congress and that an overhaul of President Donald Trump’s massive agenda bill was unfeasible. 

Johnson said when asked for a response by Fox News, ‘We don’t have time for a brand new bill.’

‘I want Elon and all my friends to recognize the complexity of what we’ve accomplished here. This extraordinary piece of legislation – record number of savings, record tax cuts for the American people and all the other benefits in it,’ the speaker told reporters.

‘We worked on the bill for almost 14 months. You can’t go back to the drawing board, and we shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here.’

Johnson cautioned critics of the bill not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

‘We’re proud of this product. The House Republicans are proud of it, and we’re happy to go out and explain that to everybody,’ Johnson said.

The Louisiana Republican said during a press conference earlier that he was ‘surprised’ by Musk’s criticism.

The speaker previously also pointed out that Republicans are planning to codify spending cuts identified by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a different vehicle than the reconciliation process.

Musk has been bearing down hard on the legislation, putting Republican lawmakers in a difficult spot after months of lauding his work with DOGE.

The massive bill passed by the House and currently being considered by the Senate advances Trump’s priorities on taxes, immigration, energy, defense, and the debt limit.

It passed the House 215 – 214 with all but three House Republicans not voting ‘yes.’

House GOP leaders, noting their slim margins, have urged the Senate to change as little as possible in the bill. But the Senate GOP has its own razor-thin majority, and lawmakers there have already signaled they want to see at least some changes.

The White House, meanwhile, has stood by the bill.

‘The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,’ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he was ‘surprised’ by Elon Musk’s criticism of the ‘big, beautiful bill’ after the two of them discussed the legislation. 

While the speaker expressed confidence in the bill, he acknowledged that it took Congress ‘decades’ to reach a point where the national debt has crept past $36.2 trillion and that it would take more than one bill to fix the situation.

‘The Trump administration needs four years to do all this reform, not two years. The Biden administration, Biden-Harris, made such a disaster of every metric of public policy, it’s going to take us more than one bill to fix it all,’ Johnson said.

The Republican House leader said he and Musk, whom he considers a ‘friend,’ had a ‘great conversation’ about the ‘big, beautiful bill’ Monday. The tech billionaire apparently joked that the bill could not be ‘big and beautiful,’ to which Johnson replied, ‘Oh, yes it can, my friend. It’s very beautiful.’

‘Elon and I left on a great note. We were texting one another — you know, happy texts,’ Johnson told reporters. The speaker added he was surprised when Musk came out against the bill the next day. 

‘I think he’s flat wrong,’ Johnson said. ‘I think he’s way off on this, and I’ve told him as much.’

Johnson also praised the ‘obviously brilliant’ tech billionaire for his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut government waste.

Despite seemingly ending his tenure with the Trump White House on good terms last week, Musk came out swinging against the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ calling it a ‘disgusting abomination.’ 

‘This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,’ Musk tweeted.

Musk also retweeted multiple pleas from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, for the Senate to improve the bill and avoid saddling Americans with more government spending. 

On Wednesday, during a weekly press briefing, House Republican leadership advocated for the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ saying it was necessary for funding the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Multiple leaders, including Johnson and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., cited the antisemitic attack in Colorado allegedly carried out by an illegal immigrant as an example why the bill’s funding is needed.

‘We need to go find the other Solimans and get them out of America,’ Johnson said in reference to suspected Boulder, Colorado, attacker Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a group of people calling for the release of hostages being held in Gaza. 

Now that the bill has passed the House, it’s up to Senate Republicans to meet President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is widening his investigation into the alleged ‘cover-up’ of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline by seeking interviews with five more former White House aides.

Comer sent letters to five more top former Biden staffers, putting his total outreach in the investigation to 10 people so far.

The latest round of letters are being sent to former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, former senior communications advisor Anita Dunn, former top advisors Michael Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, and former Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Bruce Reed.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the role of former senior White House officials in possibly usurping authority from former President Joe Biden and the ramifications of a White House staff intent on hiding his rapidly worsening mental and physical faculties,’ Comer wrote to the five former aides.

‘The Committee has been investigating this issue for nearly a year. The Committee seeks to understand who made key decisions and exercised the powers of the executive branch during the previous administration, possibly without former President Biden’s consent. The Committee requests your testimony to evaluate your eye-witness account of former President Biden’s decline.’

Each letter also detailed specific reasons the committee is seeking to speak to each person.

‘You served as Chief of Staff for former President Biden. Before departing the White House in 2023, you had been by former President Biden’s side ‘for more than three decades.’ You returned to the former president’s side in 2024 to aid his campaign and prepare him for the June 27, 2024, debate with President Donald Trump,’ the letter to Klain read, citing a recent Politico article.

‘According to an interview, you cut short the debate prep ‘due to the president’s fatigue and lack of familiarity with the subject matter’ and said that the former president ‘didn’t really understand what his argument was on inflation.’ The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation.’

To Dunn, Comer wrote, ‘Former President Biden confided in you extensively over the past decade. The Committee seeks to understand your observations of former President Biden’s mental acuity and health as one of his closest advisors.

‘If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response,’ the letter said.

Comer has asked each of the five aides to appear for closed-door transcribed interviews. 

He told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that it was a more effective investigation tactic than a public hearing that could easily devolve into an unproductive spectacle.

‘You’ve got one hour, you’re not interrupted, you don’t have to go five minutes back and forth,’ Comer said. ‘So to extract information, we’re going to go with the interviews.’

Comer previously reached out to former Biden doctor Kevin O’Connor and former White House aides Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Neera Tanden to appear. 

The committee said it expects the witnesses to voluntarily comply with the investigation and will release transcribed interview dates later this week. Comer has not ruled out the threat of subpoenas, however, if talks go awry.

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) claiming President Donald Trump’s executive orders had threatened the independence of the Federal Election Committee (FEC), a significant – albeit rare – court victory for the president.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee, said the DNC failed to demonstrate ‘concrete and imminent injury’ – or the burden needed to justify their request for a preliminary injunction. He said that the concerns raised by the party about the FEC’s independence as a result of Trump’s executive order were far too speculative to satisfy the court’s higher bar for emergency relief. 

At issue in the case was the executive order Trump signed on Feb. 18, titled, ‘Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.’ 

Democrats filed the lawsuit just 10 days after the order was signed, arguing that the order threatened to encroach on the independence of the FEC and risked subjecting it to the whims of the executive branch.

The lawsuit focused largely on the claim that the FEC is an independent regulatory agency and argued that the credibility of the entire regulatory enterprise would be ‘fatally undermined if the party controlling the White House can unilaterally structure campaign rules and adjudicate disputes to disadvantage its electoral competitors.’

Notably, Ali said Tuesday that he had not found any evidence to date that the White House or the Trump administration had taken steps to change or undermine how the FEC interprets federal election law, or target its independent role.

The ‘possibility that the president and attorney general would take the extraordinary step of issuing a directive to the FEC or its Commissioners purporting to bind their interpretation of FECA is not sufficiently concrete and imminent to create Article III injury,’ Ali said Tuesday.

Should that change, however, Ali said the DNC was welcome to submit an amended filing to the court to reconsider the case.

‘This Court’s doors are open to the parties if changed circumstances show concrete action or impact on the FEC’s or its Commissioners’ independence,’ Ali said.