President Donald Trump on Monday declared that the presidential pardons granted to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack by his predecessor, Joe Biden, are "void, vacant, and of no further force or effect."
Trump referred to the committee, which was established to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, as the "Unselect Committee of Political Thugs" in his post on Truth Social. He claimed that these pardons were issued by an autopen, a device used to automatically replicate a person's signature.
According to Trump, the pardons were signed through this method, and he accused Biden of not approving or being aware of the pardons. Trump further alleged that others may have been involved in the process of providing, approving, and signing the pardoning documents and suggested they may have "committed a crime" by doing so.
Trump also stated that the Jan. 6 attack committee "should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level," holding them responsible for the pardons that were signed on their behalf. He concluded his post by calling Biden the "worst President in the history" of the United States.
In a separate post, Trump shared a photo of three presidential portraits, representing the last three U.S. administrations. The first and third portraits were of Trump, while the middle portrait depicted an autopen, which Trump claimed was used to sign documents instead of Biden.
The post was pinned to Trump's profile, and both Vice President JD Vance and tech mogul Elon Musk shared it on their X accounts.
The U.S. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack, formed in July 2021 and disbanded in early 2023, was composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans, including 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" regarding the use of the autopen for these documents.
