Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has alleged that staffers in Joe Biden’s administration engaged in a “money for clemency” scheme, utilizing an autopen to concern pardons in alternate 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 might be gonna discover staffers that had been in a position to take varieties, get them and run them by some kind of bogus authorized system, then they auto-penned them.”
Burchett mentioned 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 mentioned. “You’ll be able to look it up. His identify is Ray Blanton. It made nationwide information.”
“And there’s individuals out on the road that shouldn’t be, however any person obtained wealthy off that. And I feel these individuals — I hate to say it, however you’ll see one thing in all probability horrible occur to a few of these individuals as a result of it goes up the chain. It is 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 obtained any person making $100,000 a yr, and any person gives you 1 / 4 of a mil in some security deposit field … yeah,” the congressman mentioned.
WATCH:
BREAKING: @RepTimBurchett says Autopen staffers had been taking MASSIVE payoffs in alternate for pardons.
This needs to be thought of TREASONOUS.
“Somebody obtained wealthy.” pic.twitter.com/WH6728YNUg
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) Could 20, 2025
In March, President Donald Trump claimed that Biden’s pardons, significantly 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 an alternative 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 extensively speculated that some staffers might have acted with out Biden’s authorization, doubtlessly exploiting his alleged psychological decline to concern pardons for revenue.
President Trump on Tuesday mentioned 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 all types, shapes, and sizes, can stream into our Nation at will. It wasn’t his thought to Open the Border, and nearly destroy our Nation, and value us Tons of of Billions of {Dollars} to get criminals out of our Nation, and undergo the method we’re going by now. It was the those 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 Stage! 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 search for his report. 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 mentioned on Reality Social.
