“I hope [the report] will be an analysis by Republicans of Trump's pardon of 1,550 people,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — who received a Biden pardon arising from his work on the House Select Committee on January 6th — told Raw Story.
“He must have a very fast hand to have signed all those, so I look forward to Comer announcing that investigation.”
While Comer and company are looking back to Biden, Schiff and other Democrats say America’s overdue for a discussion about Trump’s own pardon practices.
“Are they gonna go examine all the pardons that Trump did of the January 6 rioters?” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told Raw Story.
“I mean, do you think he actually sat down and he signed every single one of those? I'd be happy to have them review those.”
Republicans aren’t investigating Trump — they’re hungry for retribution instead.
‘Signed and settled’
Throughout U.S. history, presidents of both parties have leaned on autopens to help them sign the stacks of official and unofficial documents that demand their attention daily.
While the Supreme Court has never weighed in on autopens, a 2005 Department of Justice memo went so far as to okay presidential underlings signing official documents on a president’s behalf.
“The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,” the memo reads.
“Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 [of the Constitution] by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”
That’s partly why Democratic senators Raw Story spoke to Wednesday dismissed the Comer report as partisan and legally flawed.
“Look, executives use autopens, with appropriate processes and authorization, all the time,” said Sen. Coons — who fills the seat Biden vacated when he became vice president to Barack Obama in 2009.
“The question isn't, ‘Did Joe Biden actually effectively illegally pardon?’ The question is, ‘Did he follow appropriate procedures for making the decisions, individually documenting them and then authorizing the appropriate person to audit.’”
“How dangerous is it having the party in power trying to negate [past pardons]?” Raw Story asked.
“They're doing a lot to negate things that were signed and settled into law,” Coons said, before using this week’s deadly Caribbean storm as an example.
“A hurricane just roared over Jamaica, and we had appropriated money for disaster assistance and for humanitarian relief, and they shut down USAID, laid off some of the world's most experienced and capable disaster response people, and today our neighbors in Jamaica are waking up without a well-coordinated and robust American response because of it.”
‘A legitimate issue’
Ignoring growing questions about Trump’s fitness for office, Republicans are welcoming Comer’s report.
“I think [Biden’s autopen use is] a legitimate issue the American public cares about,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story.
“I would ask about whether, you know, all the autopen is legal or not. So I think there ought to be an investigation, and we can make a good decision.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is conducting an investigation of his own.
“It all speaks to the question, ‘Who was in charge?’” he said.
“That's a serious question, and what we're doing in my committee is we're interviewing the constitutional officers — ‘What did you know? What did you see?’ — for the historical record.
“Because if this happens in the future, they've got to realize they have a responsibility to the Constitution. You can't allow somebody who's not capable of fulfilling the awesome duties of President to do this and let somebody else completely unelected, unknown to the American public, run the show.”
Should the American people expect prosecutions?
“Depends on what crimes may have been committed,” Johnson said. “That's all hypothetical about something in the future, but now we should get to the bottom of this. People need to come forward … I always have way more questions than we ever get answers for.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), one of President Trump’s most ardent supporters, was happy to call for investigations and perhaps prosecutions.
Last-minute Biden pardons “should be voided,” Tuberville said. “If they were done by an autopen, I mean, this doesn't seem very constitutional to do it that way.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) speaks with reporters. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I'm sure they probably are, yeah,” Tuberville said when asked if pardon recipients, such as his colleague Sen. Schiff, should be investigated by the DOJ.
“That's a huge part of breaking the law, to me, if you're going to do something that notorious, on such an important topic.”
‘Really disturbing’
Crocodile tears are all the GOP’s offering, Senate Democrats said.
“Considering that this President uses pardons to extort from people, I would hope that the Republicans would be more concerned about the use of pardon powers in that way,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told Raw Story, nodding to controversial Trump pardons of powerful financial figures like Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto company Binance.
Comer released his report while the federal government is shut down and the U.S. House of Representatives is closed for business.
“[Conspiracies have] already been debunked,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) told Raw Story. “And they should wish they were equally passionate about trying to re-open [the] government and avoid impact to people who rely on nutrition assistance programs.”
Other Democrats are even more blunt when asked about congressional Republicans feeding a sympathetic DOJ fodder to go after the President’s personal, if perceived, enemies.
“I find that really disturbing,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story.
