The Oversight Project has discovered a third autopen signature used to sign presidential proclamations for former President Joe Biden, the watchdog group’s president, Mike Howell, said Thursday.
“We previously disclosed there were two autopen signatures,” Howell said in an interview with “The Sean Hannity Show” on talk radio. “So, think about it as two versions of the same signatures, applied over and over again. Now today, we’ve discovered a third autopen signature that was used on proclamations.”
The discovery comes as President Donald Trump has directed the Justice Department to investigate the autopen matter. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is also investigating.
Biden was in apparent cognitive decline during his presidency, as journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson document in their book “Original Sin,” and as suggested by former special counsel Robert Hur’s report in early 2024.
If people who worked under Biden signed his name without his authorization, it would be the usurpation of authority of a duly elected president.
“We’ve listed the statutes that are implicated. They basically revolve around forgery, impersonation of a government official; in some instances, potentially bribery, because there is a lot of money flying around these issues,” Howell told Hannity.
He added, “I think President Trump will ultimately waive executive privilege in this investigation so those officials cannot hide behind it. It’s going to be a lengthy legal battle.”
Howell further said that the anonymous sources in the Tapper and Thompson book will likely have to be revealed, noting that the Supreme Court ruled in the 1972 case of Branzburg v. Hayes that the First Amendment does not protect a reporter’s confidential sources.
“I’ve got news for Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. They are going to have to give up that information and those names,” Howell said. “There is no right to hide sources in a criminal conspiracy. That is what we are talking about here.”
The Office of Joe and Jill Biden did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal for this report.
