Watchdog finds 'no evidence' Biden knew of crucial climate EOs, demands answers on who signed autopen

Power the Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs, reviewed eight Biden executive orders that it says were significant shifts in domestic energy policy and said it found no evidence of the president speaking about any of them publicly, raising concerns that the orders were signed by autopen and that he was not aware of them. 

"These are not obscure bureaucratic memos; these were foundational shifts in American energy policy, yet not once did Joe Biden speak about them publicly," Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News Digital. 

Finding no evidence of Biden publicly speaking about the executive orders on climate, Power the Future sent letters this week to the DOJ, EPA, DOI, DOE, along with the House and Senate Oversight Committees, calling for an investigation to determine who made the decisions, drafted the executive orders and ultimately signed them. 

"In light of the growing evidence that actions purportedly taken by the former president may not have been approved or signed by him, but instead promulgated by a small coterie of advisers in his name without his knowledge or over his signature using an 'autopen,' the need for congressional access to information has grown in importance with these revelations," the letter to GOP House Oversight Chair James Comer states. 

"Congress deserves to know how or whether these executive actions were authorized, and whether the former President was aware of such orders before they were implemented by the federal bureaucracy. Were these actions taken on behalf of the president and purporting to execute his authority undertaken with the president's knowledge and approach? It appears incumbent upon Congress to inquire, about all parties involved in these actions, who instructed them to do what, when."

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for comment but did not hear back by press time.

The presidential autopen has been a topic of conversation with Republicans in recent weeks and months as questions continue about Biden's mental acuity during his presidency, particularly the last few years, which have faced increased scrutiny after the release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book "Original Sin."

"Power The Future remains concerned that key policies of major economic and national security significance directed by the White House during the Biden administration may have been undertaken without presidential awareness and approval, but perhaps instead by a small coterie of staff," the letter states.

"Although this likelihood has become more apparent by claims made in a recent book titled Original Sin, those claims merely support information that had already emerged."

An autopen is a device that physically holds a pen and is programmed to replicate a person's signature. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel determined in 2005 that the president is permitted to use an autopen to sign bills into law, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in February that said the absence of "a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur."

Despite Trump's concerns over the validity of Biden's pardons due to the alleged use of an autopen, constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital that the odds of successfully legally challenging them in court are "vanishingly low." 

"Presidents are allowed to use the autopen, and courts will not presume a dead-hand conspiracy," Turley said. 

"During the Biden administration, hundreds of billions of dollars were funneled towards pet green projects, while the American fossil fuels industry was punished, and there is no evidence that Biden ordered it, directed it, or was even aware it was happening in his name," Turner told Fox News Digital, adding that the American people "deserve to know" who was signing the executive orders "behind closed doors."

"This autopen scandal is evidence that these green EOs are invalid, and the instigators should be thoroughly investigated by the DOJ for violating the trust of the American people and perpetuating a great fraud on the nation."

Fox News Digital's Diana Stancy contributed to this report.