Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has alleged that staffers in Joe Biden’s administration engaged in a “money for clemency” scheme, utilizing an autopen to problem pardons in trade for monetary payoffs.
An autopen is a tool that mechanically reproduces signatures.
On Tuesday, Rep. Burchett appeared on “The Benny Johnson Present” and said, “You’re gonna discover staffers that had been capable of take types, get them and run them by means of some form of bogus authorized system, then they auto-penned them.”
Burchett stated he believes there was a pay-for-pardon scheme taking place, and pointed to a historic scandal involving former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton, who was implicated in promoting pardons within the Seventies.
“Tennessee has had a historical past of this; we had a governor … he offered pardons,” Burchett stated. “You’ll be able to look it up. His title is Ray Blanton. It made nationwide information.”
“And there’s folks out on the road that shouldn’t be, however anyone acquired wealthy off that. And I feel these folks — I hate to say it, however you’ll see one thing most likely horrible occur to a few of these folks as a result of it goes up the chain. This can be a very harmful city to play video games in.”
Burchett speculated that staffers, doubtlessly incomes modest salaries, might have been supplied as much as “1 / 4 of a mil” to facilitate these pardons.
“I’ve no direct proof of that, however I’m simply speaking about historical past. You’ve acquired anyone making $100,000 a 12 months, and anyone gives you 1 / 4 of a mil in some security deposit field … yeah,” the congressman stated.
WATCH:
BREAKING: @RepTimBurchett says Autopen staffers had been taking MASSIVE payoffs in trade for pardons.
This ought to be thought-about TREASONOUS.
“Somebody acquired wealthy.” pic.twitter.com/WH6728YNUg
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) Might 20, 2025
In March, President Donald Trump claimed that Biden’s pardons, notably these issued to members of the Home January 6 committee, had been “void” as a result of they had been signed with an autopen as a substitute of by hand.
Throughout his remaining days in workplace, Biden issued a slew of controversial pardons, together with Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the January 6 committee, and his son, Hunter Biden.
It has been broadly speculated that some staffers might have acted with out Biden’s authorization, doubtlessly exploiting his alleged psychological decline to problem pardons for revenue.
President Trump on Tuesday stated the individuals who ran Joe Biden’s autopen dedicated treason.
“Joe Biden was not for Open Borders, he by no means talked about Open Borders, the place criminals of every kind, shapes, and sizes, can stream into our Nation at will. It wasn’t his thought to Open the Border, and virtually destroy our Nation, and price us A whole bunch of Billions of {Dollars} to get criminals out of our Nation, and undergo the method we’re going by means of now. It was the folks that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the US, and put us in Nice Hazard. That is TREASON on the Highest Degree! They did it to destroy our Nation. The Joe Biden that everyone knew would by no means enable drug sellers, gang members, and the mentally insane to come back into our Nation completely unchecked and unvetted. All anybody has to do is lookup his file. One thing very extreme ought to occur to those Treasonous Thugs that wished to destroy our Nation, however couldn’t, as a result of I got here alongside. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump stated on Fact Social.
