House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) conduct a ‘comprehensive’ investigation into former President Joe Biden’s autopen use.
The committee’s GOP majority released a 100-page report on Tuesday morning detailing findings from its months-long probe into Biden’s White House, specifically whether his inner circle covered up signs of mental decline in the ex-president, and if that alleged cover-up extended to executive actions signed via autopen without Biden’s full awareness.
‘Faced with the cognitive decline of President Joe Biden, White House aides — at the direction of the inner circle — hid the truth about the former president’s condition and fitness for office,’ the report said.
The report also detailed a ‘haphazard documentation process’ for pardons made by Biden, which the committee argued left room for doubt over whether the former president made those decisions himself.
‘In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void,’ the GOP report said.
‘The Department of Justice should immediately conduct a review of all executive actions taken by President Biden between January 20, 2021, and January 19, 2025. Given the patterns and findings detailed herein, this review should focus particularly on all acts of clemency. However, it should also include all other types of executive actions.’
In addition to concerns about who signed off on Biden’s executive actions, Comer spent part of the report raising concerns about Hunter Biden’s role in the pardon process.
Fox News Digital previously reported that ex-Biden Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told investigators that Hunter Biden was in the room for some pardon discussions — specifically the controversial preemptive pardons the ex-president gave to his relatives.
‘It was towards the end,’ said a portion of Zients’ transcript included in the report. ‘What comes to mind is the family discussions. But I don’t know — that doesn’t mean that was it. It was the pardons towards the end, very end of the administration. And I think it was a few meetings, not many meetings.’
Comer’s report said, ‘Zients testified that President Biden included his son, Hunter Biden, in the decision-making process for and meetings about pardons.’
‘This apparently included the meeting to discuss the pardons of five Biden family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the members of Congress who served on the Select Subcommittee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol, and their staff,’ the report said.
The Oversight Committee called a total of 14 witnesses across three months, mainly consisting of top Biden administration aides — including some who had known him for decades.
Despite nearly 47 hours of interviews and sworn depositions, however, Comer suggested he believed aides covered for Biden even in the committee room.
‘Throughout the Committee’s investigation, senior Biden White House aides presented a perspective of President Biden’s cognitive health completely disconnected from that of the American public,’ the report said.
‘Not one of the Committee’s 14 witnesses was willing to admit that they ever had a concern about President Biden being in cognitive decline. In fact, numerous witnesses could not recall having a single conversation about President Biden’s cognitive health with anyone inside or outside of the White House.’
Comer spent a significant amount of time in the report criticizing former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor. O’Connor’s sworn deposition was among the shortest sit-downs of the investigation, with the doctor having invoked the Fifth Amendment for all questions save for his name.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital alongside the report, Comer called for the D.C. Health Board of Medicine to investigate O’Connor — and potentially bar him from practicing medicine.
The GOP report called O’Connor’s alleged decision to not conduct a cognitive exam with Biden during his four-year term ‘reckless’ and accused him of making ‘grossly misleading medical assessments.’
‘His refusal to answer questions about the execution of his duties as physician to the president — combined with testimony indicating that Dr. O’Connor may have succumbed to political pressure from the inner circle, influencing his medical decisions and aiding in the cover-up — legitimizes the public’s concerns that Dr. O’Connor was not forthright in carrying out his ultimate duties to the country,’ the report said.
‘The Committee recommends that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine review the actions taken by Dr. O’Connor while serving as the White House physician to President Biden for any potential wrongdoing in the medical care of the former president –– including whether Dr. O’Connor produced false or misleading medical reports to the American people.’
O’Connor’s lawyers previously told Fox News Digital that he invoked the Fifth Amendment over concerns that the scope of the committee’s probe could run afoul of doctor-patient confidentiality standards.
Biden’s allies have repeatedly denounced Comer’s probe as political and having no basis in reality.
Multiple people who spoke with the committee have argued that concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were made worse by the media and Republican pundits, particularly after his disastrous June 2024 debate against current President Donald Trump.
In an interview with The New York Times in July, Biden affirmed he ‘made every decision’ on his own.