Biden’s team wanted him to sign pardons by hand, not autopen

Published September 5, 2025 2:46pm ET



Former President Joe Biden’s senior staff initially recommended that he personally approve and sign by hand presidential clemency actions, but near the end of his term, Biden broke from that guidance, according to documents reportedly unearthed by a Trump White House investigation.

The Biden team’s initial clemency guidance was written in February 2021 by former White House staff secretary Jess Hertz and distributed to senior Biden aides Ron Klain, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Bruce Reed, and Annie Tomasini, according to documents shared by Just the News.

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