Jim Lo Scalzo / Epa
Donald Trump signs executive orders
Donald Trump’s new “obsession” is Autopen, a robotic mechanism that Joe Biden will have used to sign some official documents. The current US president wants to invalidate these initiatives.
Among the measures that Trump intends to annul are the preventive perdons issued by Joe Biden, before leaving the US presidency, to members of the House committee who are investigating the one, held by supporters of the current president.
Trump wants these perdons, which Biden signed to avoid any “revenge” of the current president, “Declared void” for being “Made by Autopen”as he wrote in his social network Truth.
This publication fed the narrative of many who are adept at Conspiracy Theoriesand they claim that Biden was not really in charge while he was president of the US.
“Joe Biden didn’t sign themBut, more importantly, I knew nothing about them, ”notes Trump on his social network, conveying an allegation without evidence that proves it.
Trump repeated the idea, then, in a conversation with journalists, stressing that he believes the perdons “They are null and without effect” for having “the certainty” that “Biden had no idea what was happening.”
It is not even known if Biden even used the “autopen” to sign these documents, but even if he has done so, it is a usual procedure that has been used by many US presidents.
But what is autopen?
Autopen is the name of a machine that Subscriptions automaticallyusing true ink.
Has the size of a printer and a kind of robotic arm that can hold a penor a pencil, to replicate on paper, a previously programmed signature.
It is a way of facilitating work to public figures, such as rulers, who need to sign large amounts of official documents.
The American company that manufactures these devices, A, states that they are used “for over 60 years” by “universities, government agencies and other institutions”, as well as some of the “most influential leaders in the world“In order to” apply their time and attention more effectively to important issues without compromising the impact of personalized correspondence. “
Many US presidents used autopen
The patented mechanism in 1803 was used by several US presidents. The first to do so will have been Harry Trumanwho was president of the US from 1945 to 1953.
John F. Kennedy (President from 1961 to 1963), Gerald Ford (1974-1977), George W. Bush (2001-2009) e Barack Obama (2009-2017) will also have used the mechanism, in addition to Biden (2021-2025) and other US state heads.
But if many people had not yet heard of Autopen, their use has become famous em 1968in the US, when he made the cover of the newspaper, with the title: “One of Washington’s best kept secrets: The robot that replaces the president“.
At the time, he was in the US presidency Lyndon Johnson, who took office after, and was reelected in 1964. Johnson let out the device in the White House.
Autopen controversy is mere “distraction”
With all this history, the claims to nullify the perdons signed with Autopen are destined to fall into “Roto Bag”.
The controversy with automatic signatures had already emerged in the past, with some people questioning the legitimacy of initiatives signed with Autopen.
In 2005, Bush’s legal counseling office issued a clarification that stressed that the President “does not have to do the physical act personally To post its signature in a bill that approves and decides to sign so that the project becomes law, ”as cites in the American radio.
Legal experts believe that the perdons cannot be annulled, even if they have been signed with Autopen, citing Article II, section 2 of the US Constitution, which “grants the Presidents ample powers of mercy” and note that that Forgiveness only needs to be “accepted by the defendant” to enter into force.
The Professor of Constitutive Law of the University of Boston Law School, Jay Wexler, considers, in statements to NPR radio, that the issue of autopen is a “distraction”.
“The argument that forgiveness fails because it was signed by an automatic signature fails from the beginning, because There is no requirement That forgiveness is signed, ”says the teacher.
