this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
581 points (99.8% liked)

News

33152 readers
3455 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The Justice Department posted pardons online bearing identical copies of Donald Trump’s signature before quietly correcting them this week after what the agency called a “technical error.”

The replacements came after online commenters seized on striking similarities in the president’s signature across a series of pardons dated Nov. 7, including those granted to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon.

In fact, the signatures on several pardons initially uploaded to the Justice Department’s website were identical, two forensic document experts confirmed to The Associated Press.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 20 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I'm back to point out presidential pardons are an absolutely WILD power to give to your head of state.

I've yet to hear a solid defence of having it in the first place. It's a power just waiting to be abused.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago

I like the idea of pardon, just not coming from one dude. We should have pardon committees at state and national level instead.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 hours ago

B b b b but Biden's autopen!

[–] Plurrbear@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Wow! This administration is a FUCKING JOKE!

Can’t even comprehend the numerous suits coming because they copy and pasted his damn signature! That’s not the same! GET YOUR MIND RIGHT!!!!

At least Biden KNEW what he was signing but this piss diaper filled POS CANNOT even do that! Straight up EMBARRASSING!!!

Give this dumbass some Depends and get him the fuck out of government! He’s already proven he’s a trash ass, “business person” and gave into tariffs as he’s so dumb he didn’t even know what that meant, so fuck him!!!

American people are suffering while he threw a “Great Gatsby” party and how dumb is he because homie damn died in that book, fucking damn idiot clearly has never read a book!!!!

Everyone who voted for him this is your fault and everyone who didn’t go to vote, it’s your fault as well!!!!

So next election including midterms, get off your ass and vote or shut the fuck up!!! No one who doesn’t vote has NO FUCKING VOICE! Get off your lazy ass and vote!

I am so sick of people complaining but never got off their couch to vote so FUCK THEM! It’s your fault and STFU!

He legit caused a coup which failed but still killed people and then now pardoned them to pretend that they didn’t do anything wrong!

WOW!!!

[–] CaptainBlinky@lemmy.myserv.one 54 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

IANAL but wouldn't that make every one of those pardons now fraudulent and invalid?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

Under literally any Democratic administration, yes.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 24 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

As much as I'd like that to be true, probably not. Automatic signature machines have been a thing, especially for presidential signatures, for a while now. This is more a hit to Trump's ego than anything.

[–] CaptainBlinky@lemmy.myserv.one 21 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not talking about the autopen. I'm talking about going back after the fact and changing the signature from the autopen to something else, thus imho, invalidating the document.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Only if there is gold fringe on the document.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

If it invalidates the first by removing the signature, it revalidates it by adding another from an authorized signer.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

Yeah I don't know if that's how it works after the pardon has already been invoked or whatever.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 20 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

The MAGAs have been making the argument that Biden signed Hunter's pardon with an autopen, so the pardon is invalid. If that's true, then so are Trump's pardons. I'm good with that, let's round up all the J6 traitors. I doubt he personally signed over 1000 pardons.

Also, did he sign any of his Executive Orders with an autopen, because they're invalid, too.

Just following THEIR rules.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Its not eve n about the autopen in their opinion, its that Biden wasn't supposedly aware of what he was signing.

So what I say is have Trump name every executive order he has made and any one that he misses gets instantly struck down.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 53 minutes ago* (last edited 53 minutes ago)
[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I doubt he personally signed over 1000 pardons.

You know, you can have more than one name on a single pardon, or just name an entire group like "everyone who was accused of any crime at or near the capital on January 6, 2021". Also dude is still the incumbent, what good is invalidating the autopen thing?

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Specifying a whole group and not giving names seems like it should probably be unconstitutional? Like you could just use it to unilaterally undo any law, which isn’t the intent of the pardon system. IANAL

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I mean, the people who dodged the Vietnam War got pardoned that way... so it can be used for good...

It's a double-edge sword.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 44 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Would it shock you to hear that they’ve been breaking the law the whole time and getting away with it?

[–] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 10 points 16 hours ago

I'm shocked!

[–] CaptainBlinky@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

So's your mom

[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 109 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

This asshole replaced Joe biden’s presidential portrait in the whitehouse with a picture of an auto pen and now someone has been just copying and pasting his signature?

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 108 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

Every 👏 accusation 👏 is 👏 a 👏 confession 👏

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 19 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Joe biden’s presidential portrait in the whitehouse with a picture of an auto pen

Somehow I missed that story. What the fuck.....

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago

The White House is filled with grade school level bullies, and what's worse is that they think they're funny.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 260 points 23 hours ago (9 children)

Pretty sure this is worse than the autopen thing they tried to turn into a scandal.

[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 135 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Autopens have been used for like... 150 years or something? And they involve the president actually authorizing the signature, whereas Stephen Miller or some aide or somebody is just copying and pasting this shit on random documents

Edit: over 200 years. https://www.shapell.org/behind-the-scenes/the-robot-pen/

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 83 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

The first president to use the autopen extensively was Thomas Jefferson. ... Since Jefferson, various US presidents have made use of the autopen; some were guarded about it while others were more open about its use. Whereas once the official White House position was to deny the existence or usage of the autopen, today its existence is more of an open secret.

Harry Truman was rumored to make use of the device; Gerald Ford was open about his utilization of the autopen, but it was Lyndon B. Johnson who blew the doors off the entire affair by allowing the device to be photographed in the White House, appearing on the cover of The National Enquirer with the article “The Robot That Sits in for the President.”

John F. Kennedy was so dependent on the autopen, that he became the subject of a book entitled The Robot That Helped to Make a President.

But when Biden uses it, it's a scandal, and when Trump duplicates his signatures it's perfectly fine. Good old Republican hypocrisy.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

They know all of this. They harped on the Biden autopen thing to normalize exactly what we are reading about right now.

"Biden got away with it, so we can do it too."

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 14 points 18 hours ago

Rules are different for dictators.

[–] hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de 64 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Every single single accusation, regardless how outlandish it may seem, is an admission. At this point I would not be surprised if they had pedo space lasers igniting Californian forests.

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 36 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Claims of election fraud to numb tolerance public to hearing about that.

Pedophile pizza places was Epstein Island.

Claims of Dems taking away guns, bot Trump is working on that.

Claiming woke stuff silences people so their taking over national media seems normal.

Autopen was to desensitize to staff pardoning people using Trump's name.

There's tons more, but yeah if they accuse Dems of doing something then it is something the fascists are planning to do.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

It's amazing that it still keeps working.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 43 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, we've already accepted the idea that he's handing out pardons to people who commit crimes on his behalf and outright selling pardons to others without much fuss. At that point who cares how he's signing the documents?

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 82 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

He's literally admitted he has no clue who Changpeng Zhao, someone he pardoned, even is. If you can't name the pardoned crime nor the person, is he of sound mind to be entrusted with that power?

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 41 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

It does make you wonder whether Trump even signs these orders, or whether Stephen Miller just prints Trump's signature on them in his crypt of Nazi evil.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 23 points 21 hours ago

In any sane time, that admission alone would spark multiple Congressional inquiries, and maybe even an impeachment trial. But now, we just add it to the pile of impeachable things that this Congress lets slide because their guy is doing it.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 50 points 22 hours ago

The "Biden Autopen Scandal" is something you'll hear about at least weekly in conservative media. Especially when Epstein comes up again.

It's always projection.

[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 26 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 19 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Every accusation is a confession.

load more comments (1 replies)

Chad Gilmartin, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the “website was updated after a technical error where one of the signatures President Trump personally signed was mistakenly uploaded multiple times due to staffing issues caused by the Democrat shutdown.”

Too funny. Not only is nothing republicans' fault, even when they are totally in control of a situation, but it must also be the fault of democrats.

load more comments
view more: next ›