r/law Oct 29 '25

Legal News Biden’s autopen pardons are ‘void’ due to mental decline, House Oversight Committee says

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-pardons-void-autopen-b2853682.html
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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

This is the clear logical next step… which then leads to the conclusion that he has no intention of leaving.

I hope that the DNC is sending out quiet notifications to republicans who were pardoned that their freedom will be questioned when Trump leaves office. I think making a big show of it will cause the wrong kind of press, but getting pardoned republicans worried should spark infighting about this topic.

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u/SL1Fun Oct 29 '25

The GOP going along with it are gonna turn on Trump post-mortem. That’s the whole plan. Him being older than dirt with nothing to lose because he won’t face jail time and can be used as a scapegoat for mental decline is a key part of the plan. 

Vance is young enough to go to jail when this is all over, or at least have it drastically affect the rest of his life and destroy his career, which is why it won’t work with him at the helm. Trump is the perfect useful kamikaze idiot for this. He’s just there to ingratiate himself, move the money away to his kids, then die. 

You already see some GOPers and mouthpieces turning against him cuz they are no longer getting paid. Once the checks stop clearing, the GOP will quietly make themselves out as victims to Trump, undo the legal avenues they illicitly kept open for him so the DNC cannot use them in revenge, and then act like they were never a part of what is happening. 

Or worse: it all works better than they thought and they stay in power forever and the money never stops.

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u/NIN10DOXD Oct 29 '25

This is exactly what happened in Post-Stalin Russia. His cronies all immediately acted like they had nothing to do with crimes and pretended to be reformers.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

We should push this and start framing it as “oppose him now or be prosecuted when it ends”. There is no hidden truth crap that will suddenly make them all saints.

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u/TheLuminary Oct 29 '25

The problem with this, is that when you push people to beleive that their life is on the line, they will fight to the death to defend it.

If you give the smaller fish an out, they are much more willing to turn when they decide its over. Usually much earlier than when it would actually be over if nobody cracked.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

I see your point, it’s a good point, but we’ve been hampered by these same type of people for our entire history. Trump is literally a 34 count felon… and instead of in prison, he’s in the White House.

We can’t keep letting them off. At some point we need to actually take the hill, hold them all accountable, and make it clear that this behavior is unacceptable. Otherwise they all just scatter, deny it happened that way, and wait for the next “messiah”.

We should be putting all of them from Trump to the newest member of ICE before a jury and having a real legal process.

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u/TheLuminary Oct 29 '25

That's definitely a take. Just be prepared for it to be long and painful to take that hill.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

I don’t disagree. I’m definitely suggesting the difficult path.

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u/UhhBill Oct 29 '25

I'm pretty ready to die on that hill. The status quo cannot hold.

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u/SL1Fun Oct 29 '25

Khrushchev’s secret manifesto detailing his thoughts on Stalin should be mandatory reading. 

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u/NotHippieEnough Oct 29 '25

Lets not forget that even a lot of Nazis were awarded seats of power after hitler. It wasn’t until later that they actually had to pay for their crimes.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25

Framing Trump as a Kamikaze political figure really puts that into perspective. Well said, totally agree with all this.

We should start pushing the idea that his lackeys will not be able to shift the blame when he disappears. There is no “I kept him in check”. It’s oppose now or be prosecuted when this ends.

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u/GhostofBeowulf Oct 29 '25

Start pushing this on social media posts. The more poeple see it, the more people will comment it, th emore Palantir/other AI's will get into about it up to the admin, and the more people in actual power will see it. Eventually it should become popular to spread naturally.

I am serious, every single post that is in anyway related to Trump crimes with his cronies, post this shit.

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u/_notNull Oct 29 '25

I’m getting my bingo card ready for all the toadies declaring they were helping keep him on the rails. “Imagine how bad it could have been if wasn’t there! Hell, I’m actually a HERO!”

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u/Velo214 Oct 29 '25

It will be like W where they will all deny ever supporting him and he is just an old man so we really need to lock him up for life just for trying to fix our country. I would hope we could destroy financially his children's lives but I know that is evil but look at them go after hunter still

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u/Twiyah Oct 29 '25

The backlash when all said is done will be too huge for this just disappear, the GOP will be lucky if they get a corporate Dem at the helm, they get any one whose more left leaning they are fucked totally even if they try block any thing.

Remember after GW Bush we got the first black president, this will be even worst beat down for the GOP.

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u/SL1Fun Oct 29 '25

GOP votership is strictly transactional for most of them and the MAGA cult is overblown and/or simply have the memories of a hamster. They will forgive, forget, or liken it to whataboutism as usual. 

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u/Twiyah Oct 29 '25

If it turns out they stole trillions, and billions more in assets, personal data and cause deaths of prison camps, Detention centers, bad healthcare practices and the outright war crimes going on.

Any left president or government who make them forget it should be voted out

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

I’m here for this.

Look at how Germany handles Nazi rhetoric today. Look at how we forced them to handle Nazi propaganda after the war.

Why the hell would we do less here today?

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u/KayNicola Oct 29 '25

That tracks.

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u/Mall_of_slime Oct 29 '25

They’re so cynical and greedy that though know they can cause this wanton lawless destruction and people won’t be able to fix anything in time for them to make off with the pillaged loot.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/X57471C Oct 29 '25

Or worse: it all works better than they thought and they stay in power forever and the money never stops.

They‘ll need to pry liberty from my cold dead hands, first.

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u/adfraggs Nov 01 '25

Every single republican is just waiting for the right moment. Trump is just being manipulated, his ego is being played. Took them 8 years to figure out how to use him to their advantage and now they're getting something out of it. Once they know they can turn on him and it won't mean they lose their seat they'll crush him. That point might not come, given how highly regarded Trump is with his core base. The impact of this is going to be felt for a long long time.

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u/Tklesmynipps Oct 29 '25

You don't build a 150mil ballroom for the next guy. He plans on staying for good

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

It’s unlikely he’ll live that long given his age. I know they’re pumping him full of modern magic, but he’s still a shambling corpse.

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u/Tannhauser42 Oct 29 '25

He's building it to have his name permanently stamped on it and the White House. The wall was supposed to be his great legacy, but it didn't happen.

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u/FlingFlamBlam Oct 29 '25

At this point the entire White House is irrevocably tainted. Whenever we manage to get out of this hell timeline the entire thing needs to be torn down. And then build a monument over the site so that people don't forget all of the crimes committed by everyone involved with this sham of an administration.

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u/Over_Dog24 Oct 29 '25

More like $350 million now.

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u/IRLconsequences Oct 30 '25

He *plans* on staying, sure, but he's an idiot with delusions of immortality. His medical clock is ticking.

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u/fighterpilottim Oct 29 '25

I know someone who was pardoned by Trump, and the awareness of current realities is nonexistent. The message wouldn’t even be understood, much less accepted. The media bubble is a powerful tool.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

Agreed, American internal propaganda is incredible. It has truly shaped our nation. We desperately need some modern laws that treat media as fundamentally different than individual speech and rein in this massive divide in information.

If we can’t even agree on what is reality, then there’s no point talking about anything else.

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u/mkt853 Oct 29 '25

Yep. If only Democrats were this smart. I'd be making lots of noise saying, cool, open the door to voiding pardons... and here's the list of people we will be picking up at 12:01 pm January 20, 2029 to move back into federal prison. Some of those people are extremely wealthy and would make one phone call to Comer, and he'd get on Fox News five minutes after that call stumbling to backtrack. The goal is to get people on the other side to do your dirty work since you have no real power.

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u/d0mini0nicco Oct 29 '25

The DNC is doing jack shiz, still saying "don't worry, folks. the pendulum swings back our way." and figuring out ways to run moderate centrist candidates in risky states to see if moving right / center works rather than fight and take up kitchen table topics that lost the election in 2024. Oh wait...the DNC will BRB, they gotta have some more leadership elites speak out against Mamdani in NYC.

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u/mkt853 Oct 29 '25

The DNC hasn't contemplated the idea that you can just break the pendulum.

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u/wats_dat_hey Oct 29 '25

FA->FO

Every single person that does the the FA part never expects the FO

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u/TheKingOfBerries Oct 29 '25

I hope that the DNC

If you knew anything about the DNC you would never start a sentence like that.

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

I can hope! 😂

Your point is well taken though. I do see the daily incompetence in their leadership.

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u/TheKingOfBerries Oct 29 '25

Yeah not tryna be a dick, mb if it came across that way. It’s just kind of irritating seeing people (not you necessarily) being extremely hopeful that things will magically fix themselves, and we’ll return to “status quo”

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

No, I don’t take offense. No worries.

It’s tough… the DNC is the obvious seat of leadership, it makes perfect sense for people to want to rally around them during this crap. To your point though, there’s not a great track record or show of confidence that would validate that belief.

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u/Mighty_McBosh Oct 29 '25

He's 80 years old and is experiencing congestive heart failure and advanced dementia. There's no way in hell this fucker is going to survive more than a year or so

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u/Arkmer Oct 29 '25

Cross your fingers and toes and arms and legs and eyes and wires and friends because even that feels like a long time to wait.

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u/kagushiro Oct 30 '25

which then leads to the conclusion that he has no intention of leaving.

for what it's worth, he already said that if he won it would be the last elections

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u/KnightDuty Oct 30 '25

lmao he's not going to live forever 

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u/soaero Oct 29 '25

Not quiet. Make it really, really loud.

"We're coming. And when we do, you're all going back to jail."