Former President Joe Biden only signed one pardon by hand during his final weeks in office, and it was his most controversial one. 

The Justice Department is reviewing the list of people granted pardons by Biden amid new concerns about his use of an autopen to automatically sign documents and concerns about his state of mind and mental acuity in his final months in office. 

Biden used his final weeks as commander in chief to grant clemency and pardon more than 1,500 people in what his White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president. 

Biden appears to have signed those final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating Jan. 6. 

But the former president signed one by hand for his son. Biden pardoned son Hunter in December 2024 after vowing to the American people for months he would not do so. 

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony gun offenses during special counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. 

Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea. 

Former President Joe Biden in December 2024 announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden ‘has committed or may have committed’ from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. 

‘From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ the former president said. 

‘There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

‘I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.’ 

Weiss, who charged Hunter Biden, blasted the former president for pardoning his son, saying his characterizations of the yearslong probe were ‘wrong’ and ‘unfairly’ maligned Justice Department officials. 

Weiss, in the report, blasted the president’s decision to pardon and the press release to the public that ‘criticized the prosecution of his son as ‘selective,’ ‘unfair,’ ‘infected’ by ‘raw politics’ and a ‘miscarriage of justice.”

‘This statement is gratuitous and wrong,’ Weiss wrote in his report. ‘Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.’ 

In another section of the report, Weiss noted that, in light of the presidential pardon, he ‘cannot make any additional charging decisions,’ adding it would be ‘inappropriate’ to discuss ‘whether additional charges are warranted.’ 

‘Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system,’ Weiss wrote. ‘The President’s statements unfairly impugn the integrity not only of Department of Justice personnel, but all of the public servants making these difficult decisions in good faith.

‘The President’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong.’ 

Biden’s use of an autopen for signatures is under investigation by Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

President Donald Trump directed Bondi to investigate whether certain individuals working for Biden conspired to deceive the public about his mental state while also exercising his presidential responsibilities by using an autopen.

In a memo Wednesday, Trump said the president of the U.S. has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through the signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

‘In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,’ Trump wrote. 

‘This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.’

He added that Biden has experienced ‘serious cognitive decline’ for years, and the Department of Justice recently concluded Biden should not stand trial despite clear evidence he broke the law, because of his mental state.

‘Biden’s cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even ‘worse’ in private, and those closest to him ‘tried to hide it’ from the public,’ Trump said. ‘To do so, Biden’s advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties.’

A House fiscal hawk wants to create a payment plan for congressional emergency spending to create accountability for the ‘no rules apply’ funding stream.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., is set to introduce the Emergency Spending Accountability Act that would add guardrails to last-minute funding meant for national emergencies, like natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic or other spending meant to fill the gaps in the appropriations process.

Stutzman told Fox News Digital that lawmakers will go about the usual budgeting process, passing stopgap spending bills or colossal, omnibus spending packages, but that ‘somewhere in between’ there’s always extra money pushed out the door for emergencies.

‘Whenever there’s an emergency, Congress always overreacts,’ he said. ‘And I believe they pass these big spending bills under the guise of an emergency, national emergency, and spend money that we don’t take into consideration through our budget process.’

He said that when he first came to Washington in 2010, the national debt was $9 trillion. After leaving the House and returning during last year’s election cycle, that number has since ballooned to more than $36 trillion.

And since the early 1990s, more than $12 trillion in emergency spending has added to the ever-growing deficit. The lawmaker said that the money dedicated for emergency use was rarely ever paid back, and he argued that the taxpayer dollars were sometimes not used for actual emergencies.

Stutzman’s legislation, which so far has seven House Republican co-sponsors, would require the federal government to pay off the balance of future emergency spending by 20% each year for five years after an emergency following a green-light from lawmakers to open up the cash flow.

His bill would also stipulate that any emergency spending would have to comport with the criteria laid out by the Balance Budget and Emergency Control Act of 1985, which laid out a five-point roadmap to justify that emergency spending be necessary, sudden, urgent, unforeseen and not permanent.

He understood that there is always a need for emergency spending, giving the examples of the pandemic and of Hurricane Sandy, which blasted through the East Coast more than a decade ago, but he noted there should be offset cuts to account for the spending and better planning on how the taxpayer dollars would be used.

‘Most companies and family budgets, they always have a rainy-day fund or an emergency fund that they can tap into if they need it for unexpected costs and expenses, but that’s not the way Washington works,’ Stutzman said. ‘So that’s the idea.’

Sen. Adam Schiff faced pushback after calling on White House counsel David Warrington to release financial disclosures for senior officials—prompting a Trump aide to suggest he start by requesting the same from longtime Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

‘The American people remain highly concerned about Nancy Pelosi’s long, documented history of insider trading and eagerly await Adam Schiff refocusing his political stunt on serious issues, like Pelosi’s portfolio,’ White House spokesman Kush Desai told ABC News after it inquired about Schiff’s letter.

In a letter to Warrington and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Schiff, D-Calif., expressed ‘continued and growing concern regarding … failure to submit any financial disclosure reports for senior White House officials to the Office of Government Ethics within the statutorily mandated period.’

Schiff demanded the White House turn over a list of officials required to file ‘new entrant’ reports, an explanation for ‘failure to transmit’ such reports for certification and any late-filing fees imposed for ‘delinquent filings.’

He noted that he had signed on to a bicameral April letter that included fellow Californian Rep. Mike Levin, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and several other Democrats asking for similar information.

In comments to Fox News Digital on Thursday, the White House pushed back again on Schiff, saying that all officials there who are required to file public reports continue to comply with their obligations.

‘… including the obligation to file periodic transaction reports disclosing the purchase or sale of certain securities,’ said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman.

‘For decades, administrations of both parties, including the first Trump Administration, have fulfilled this obligation, recognizing that public trust in government depends on robust, enforceable transparency standards,’ Schiff said in a statement.

‘However, senior officials in this administration have repeatedly failed to disclose assets and business entanglements, as well as potentially misused their official positions for personal gain.’

‘Transparency and compliance with ethics laws are essential.’

In that regard, Desai’s initial response highlighted ongoing criticisms of Pelosi, whose net worth is reportedly north of $120 million, and who has been accused of wrongful financial transactions over her 38 years in the House.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, did not respond to a request for comment, and the Speaker Emerita kept walking when asked on the Hill about the matter last month by a Fox News Digital reporter.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the PELOSI– Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments – Act in 2023, and fellow Missourian Rep. Mark Alford crafted a similar bill in the House, alluding to allegations against her over the years.

Trump has said he would support such legislation this term, telling Time he had purportedly ‘watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be OK with it. If they send that to me, I would do it.’

Fox News Digital found no record of Schiff making similar requests to the Biden administration and received no response from the Burbank lawmaker when asked for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo and Remy Numa contributed to this report.

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s feud about the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ continued on Thursday when the tech billionaire responded to the president’s criticism in a post on X.

‘Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude,’ Musk wrote in a post responding to Trump’s remarks about him.

While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that he was ‘very disappointed’ by Musk’s vocal criticisms of the bill. The president claimed that Musk knew what was in the bill and ‘had no problem’ with it until the EV incentives had to be cut.

‘I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it,’ Trump said. ‘All of a sudden, he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate.’

Musk pushed back on the president’s claim in another post on X and said that ‘this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!’

The Tesla founder has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and Republicans over the last few days because of the legislation that the president has pushed. Musk has taken to calling it the ‘Big Ugly Bill’ and at one point advocated for a ‘Slim, Beautiful Bill.’

Earlier on Thursday, Musk highlighted Trump’s old posts that seemingly align with the tech billionaire’s current positions and objections to the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’ 

Trump turned to social media on Thursday afternoon to criticize Musk, who he appointed to find ways to cut $2 trillion after forming the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

‘Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!’ Trump said in one post.

‘The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!’ he wrote in another.

Musk has also faced criticism from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said on Wednesday that he was ‘surprised’ by the former DOGE leader’s objections to the legislation. The Republican lawmaker said that he and Musk, whom he considers a ‘friend,’ had a ‘great conversation’ about the bill on Monday. Johnson told reporters on Wednesday that Musk was ‘flat wrong’ about the legislation.

Meanwhile, there are several Republicans who have expressed solidarity with Musk, including Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Additionally, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said that Musk was right to be concerned that Americans are ‘quickly becoming debt slaves.’

Now that the bill has passed the house, it’s up to the Senate to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.

As criticism mounts from within former President Joe Biden’s world against former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and her new book, one ex-aide lambasted the now-Independent ombudswoman as ‘kinda dumb’ — a tweet he deleted but later stood by.

Timothy Wu, now a Columbia Law professor, was Biden’s ‘architect’ of antitrust policy whose faculty bio claims he also coined the progressive term ‘net neutrality’ in 2002.

In a now-deleted tweet, Wu wrote: ‘from a [White House] staff perspective, the real problem with Karine Jean-Pierre was that she was kinda dumb.’

‘[She had n]o interest in understanding harder topics. Just gave random incoherent answers on policy,’ Wu added in the trashed tweet.

The X account ‘I work with my word’ replied to the original tweet, calling it ‘pretty racist,’ and the tweet was later deleted, but the reply remained.

Below the reply, Wu added a new line of commentary, saying the Biden White House was ‘full of genius-level Black women. [Jean-Pierre] was not one of them.’ 

In response to another X user asking Wu whether Trump White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt understands executive policy, the professor said a good ombudsperson will ‘meet with policy staff and try and understand what the administration is doing and why.’

After Wu’s original tweet, fellow former Biden advisor Symone Sanders Townsend wrote on X that Democrats ‘going on the record or on background to call Karine ‘dumb’ or ‘stupid’ have crossed a line.’ ‘You can have a valid criticism about how she did the job, but let’s not walk down the road of disrespect,’ Sanders Townsend said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Wu via his Columbia faculty office, where he has taught since 2006.

The former Biden advisor was also a Democratic primary candidate for New York’s lieutenant governorship in 2014, and also worked in the Obama administration and at the Federal Trade Commission.

Jean-Pierre on Wednesday announced that she left the Democratic Party and has become an independent while revealing her upcoming book: ‘Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.’

She was mocked and criticized by several people in Biden’s orbit besides Wu, including one who said, ‘I wouldn’t ignore what Karine has to say, but it’s not an account in which much weight will be invested — just like her briefings.’

‘At noon on that day [that Biden left office], I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country. I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes. We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically,’ Jean-Pierre said of her new independent streak.

Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood and The Associated Press contributed to this report.