A senior official within President Donald Trump’s Justice Department informed colleagues that he has been requested to investigate the clemency granted by former President Joe Biden to certain family members and death row inmates during his last days in office.

Ed Martin, the pardon attorney for the Justice Department, mentioned in an email acquired by Reuters that the investigation is centered on whether Biden “was competent and whether others were exploiting him through the use of AutoPen or other methods.”

An autopen is a device that automatically signs documents. Trump and his supporters have made numerous unfounded claims, including that Biden’s use of this device while in office rendered his actions invalid or that he was not fully cognizant of them. Reuters has indicated that it remains uncertain whether Biden utilized an autopen for the pardons.

The email indicated that Martin’s inquiry is focused on preemptive pardons granted by Biden to several family members, as well as clemency that spared 37 federal inmates from execution by commuting their sentences to life imprisonment.

Just prior to transferring the presidency to Trump on January 20, Biden pardoned five family members, asserting that he aimed to protect them from future politically motivated investigations.

Biden issued pardons to his siblings James Biden, Frank Biden, and Valerie Biden Owens, along with their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden. On December 1, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, who had admitted guilt to tax violations and was convicted on charges related to firearms.

Martin’s email did not reveal which pardons of the Biden family members are currently under scrutiny. It also did not clarify who instructed Martin to commence the investigation.

Last week, Martin declared that he is looking into the dubious application of the presidential autopen for granting pardons during the concluding days of the Biden administration.

Martin confirmed that the investigation into the use of the autopen has been ongoing for a considerable period. He has reached out to members of the Biden family, several individuals of interest have secured legal representation, and a whistleblower has already stepped forward with significant allegations.

“I had a whistleblower in my office 10 days ago — a senior, senior Democrat — who said, ‘Look, it was these three individuals that controlled access, and they were profiting from it,’” Martin informed journalist Mark Halperin during the “2WAY Tonight” show. “I am not certain if I believe it yet, but the essential point is that we must uncover the truth for the American people and safeguard the process, and that is precisely what we are doing.”

Martin indicated that the whistleblower had a close association with the 2020 Biden campaign.

The pardon attorney identified three individuals as primary “gatekeepers”: Ron Klain, who acted as President Biden’s White House chief of staff from 2021 to 2023 and returned last year to aid in debate preparations; former senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn; and Robert Bauer, who was the personal attorney to President Barack Obama.

Martin subsequently included two additional names to the list—Steve Ricchetti, who was a former counselor to President Biden and chairman of his 2020 campaign, and “obviously Jill [Biden],” the First Lady.

He also mentioned to Halperin that he inquired with the whistleblower regarding the involvement of Susan Rice or others, but “they responded, ‘No, these were the ones.’”

Power the Future, a nonprofit organization advocating for American energy jobs, has reviewed eight executive orders issued by Biden, which it asserts represent significant changes in domestic energy policy. The organization found no evidence that the president has publicly discussed any of these orders, raising concerns that they may have been signed using an autopen without his awareness.

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

The executive orders analyzed by Power the Future encompass a ban on Arctic drilling in 2023, a 2021 order committing the federal government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, an order requiring the establishment of “clean energy” AI centers, and an offshore drilling ban order that was issued shortly before leaving office in 2025.