Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett has alleged that staffers in Joe Biden’s administration engaged in a “cash for clemency” scheme, using an autopen to issue pardons in exchange for financial payoffs.
An autopen is a device that mechanically reproduces signatures.
On Tuesday, Rep. Burchett appeared on “The Benny Johnson Show” and stated, “You are gonna find staffers that were able to take forms, get them and run them through some sort of bogus legal system, then they auto-penned them.”
Burchett said he believes there was a pay-for-pardon scheme happening, and pointed to a historical scandal involving former Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton, who was implicated in selling pardons in the 1970s.
“Tennessee has had a history of this; we had a governor … he sold pardons,” Burchett said. “You can look it up. His name is Ray Blanton. It made national news.”
“And there’s people out on the street that shouldn’t be, but somebody got rich off that. And I think those people — I hate to say it, but you’ll see something probably horrible happen to some of those people because it goes up the chain. This is a very dangerous town to play games in.”
Burchett speculated that staffers, potentially earning modest salaries, could have been offered up to “a quarter of a mil” to facilitate these pardons.
“I have no direct proof of that, but I’m just talking about history. You’ve got somebody making $100,000 a year, and somebody offers you a quarter of a mil in some safety deposit box … yeah,” the congressman said.
WATCH:
BREAKING: @RepTimBurchett says Autopen staffers were taking MASSIVE payoffs in exchange for pardons.
This should be considered TREASONOUS.
“Someone got rich.” pic.twitter.com/WH6728YNUg
— Gunther Eagleman
(@GuntherEagleman) May 20, 2025
In March, President Donald Trump claimed that Biden’s pardons, particularly those issued to members of the House January 6 committee, were “void” because they were signed with an autopen instead of by hand.
During his final days in office, Biden issued a slew of controversial pardons, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, members of the January 6 committee, and his son, Hunter Biden.
It has been widely speculated that some staffers may have acted without Biden’s authorization, potentially exploiting his alleged mental decline to issue pardons for profit.
President Trump on Tuesday said the people who ran Joe Biden’s autopen committed treason.
“Joe Biden was not for Open Borders, he never talked about Open Borders, where criminals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes, can flow into our Country at will. It wasn’t his idea to Open the Border, and almost destroy our Country, and cost us Hundreds of Billions of Dollars to get criminals out of our Country, and go through the process we are going through now. It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger. This is TREASON at the Highest Level! They did it to destroy our Country. The Joe Biden that everybody knew would never allow drug dealers, gang members, and the mentally insane to come into our Country totally unchecked and unvetted. All anyone has to do is look up his record. Something very severe should happen to these Treasonous Thugs that wanted to destroy our Country, but couldn’t, because I came along. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said on Truth Social.
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