The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee delivered a stunning blow to former President Joe Biden’s final acts in office, declaring on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, that pardons and commutations signed by autopen during his presidency may be legally void due to his alleged cognitive decline.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the committee raised serious questions about whether Biden was aware of the substance of clemency documents bearing his signature via autopen, an automated signing device. The committee urged Bondi to consider whether the pardons might be invalid and to pursue potential prosecution against some of Biden’s aides.
The committee asserted that Biden experienced such significant cognitive decline while in office that his mental capacity to understand and authorize the pardons remains in serious doubt. The final report characterizes the use of autopen for presidential pardons as constitutionally questionable, arguing that such weighty executive decisions require the president’s direct, personal involvement and understanding.
This development comes amid mounting health concerns surrounding the 82-year-old former president. Biden left office in January 2025 as the oldest serving president in U.S. history, and questions about his mental and physical fitness dogged his entire final term.
The timing of the committee’s accusations carries particular weight given recent revelations about Biden’s health. In May 2025, Biden’s personal office announced he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bone. The diagnosis came after Biden experienced increasing urinary symptoms, leading doctors to discover a prostate nodule during what was described as a routine physical examination.
According to his office, Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer characterized by a Gleason score of 9, Grade Group 5, with metastasis to the bone. While representing a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, allowing for effective management options. The former president has completed a course of radiation therapy.
Biden has faced persistent questions about cognitive decline, particularly following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. That halting performance led to mounting criticism within his own party and ultimately forced him to withdraw from the presidential race, paving the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.
Biden told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos after the debate that “it was a bad episode,” attributing his performance to exhaustion and failure to listen to his instincts about preparation. However, the incident sparked an internal Democratic reckoning about whether party leaders had ignored warning signs about Biden’s fitness for office.
During his presidency, Biden received regular physical examinations. His physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, consistently described him as healthy and fit for duty in reports following physicals conducted in November 2021, February 2023, and February 2024. O’Connor noted Biden was being treated for several conditions, including non-valvular atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, gastroesophageal reflux, seasonal allergies, spinal arthritis, and mild sensory peripheral neuropathy in both feet.
The February 2024 physical report noted the incorporation of positive airway pressure into Biden’s sleeping routine after a formal sleep study confirmed he would benefit from optimizing his sleep efficiency. O’Connor indicated Biden had experienced symptoms consistent with sleep apnea in the past.
In March 2023, a lesion removed from Biden’s chest during a February physical was confirmed as basal cell carcinoma, though O’Connor stated all cancerous tissue was successfully removed and no further treatment was required. Biden had previously had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery before entering the presidency.
The Oversight Committee’s challenge to Biden’s pardons represents an unprecedented constitutional question about the validity of presidential clemency when issued through automated means by a potentially incapacitated executive. The committee’s call for potential prosecution of Biden’s aides suggests Republicans believe staff members may have overstepped their authority in managing the pardon process.
Biden has largely retreated from public view since leaving office, making few public appearances. During a May 2025 interview with the BBC, his first since departing the White House, he acknowledged that stepping down from the 2024 race was difficult. In an appearance on ABC’s “The View” that same month, Biden denied claims of cognitive decline during his final year in office, asserting there was nothing to sustain such allegations.
The former president has been a longtime advocate for cancer research, having lost his eldest son Beau to brain cancer in 2015. In 2022, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden relaunched the Cancer Moonshot initiative, aiming to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by 2047. The program seeks to mobilize research efforts and promote public-private partnerships to advance progress against the disease.
