President Donald Trump appears to have his hands full juggling one high-stakes battle after another — from a widening conflict tied to Iran to mounting pressure at home — but behind the scenes, another effort was quietly taking shape, one that wasn’t meant to surface.
Even as the administration worked to steady its footing abroad, Trump remained fixed on settling scores at home, pushing aggressively behind the scenes to turn long-running grievances into action, regardless of how far those efforts had to stretch.
That push extended into the Justice Department, where allies were pressed to pursue claims Trump has repeated for months, this time with greater urgency and far less concern about whether the cases could actually hold up under scrutiny.
One of his most fixated targets has been former President Joe Biden, whom Trump has repeatedly accused, without evidence, of relying on an autopen to sign critical documents and issue pardons in the final stretch of his presidency — a claim he has seized on as a way to challenge the legitimacy of those decisions.
Despite no proof, that hasn’t slowed him down.
Trump has continued to insist Biden’s pardons are invalid, arguing that his mental state had declined to the point where he could not consent to them and that aides acted without his knowledge — a theory that, even internally, left some questioning how far it could realistically go.
According to The New York Times, the Washington U.S. attorney’s office, led by staunch Trump ally Jeanine Pirro, moved forward with an effort to build a case against Biden and his aides, even as prosecutors wrestled with a more fundamental question of what crime, if any, had actually been committed.
That uncertainty only deepened as investigators confronted the legal reality that both Biden and Trump benefit from broad presidential immunity, leaving them unclear on whether to focus on Biden himself, his aides or whether the case could realistically proceed at all.
Even with those doubts, the effort moved forward, ultimately collapsing before it ever surfaced when Pirro and team quietly abandoned the doomed mission.
Online, the reaction was swift and unforgiving.
“Of course he couldn’t,” Threads user Kimba 5678 asseted. “The auto pen is legal and Trump himself has used it. This is all about distraction so that we forget about the Epstein files and that 3 million documents have yet to be released.”
Another said bluntly, “Lunatics.”
Others agreed that Trump is still trying to divert and distract from the Epstein files.
“Oh, JFC, dotards, give it the hell up. Your boss f-cked minors, none of you have the ability to find your ass with a boxing glove, AND WE HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN THE EPSTEIN FILES.”
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“In other words, trump and his admin are abusing the autopen to criminal levels,” Threads user Janet Lee57 suggested.
Reactions quickly spiraled across social media as Trump opponents called out the hypocrisy for what it is.
This Threads user, including a laughing emoji, chimed in, “The DoJ knew Biden would be able to produce a mountain of sh-t ‘signed’ by Trump.”
In the case of the lawmakers, a grand jury declined to indict, delivering a rare rebuke despite Trump accusing them of treason and suggesting they should be executed — rhetoric that has only intensified as the legal outcomes continue to fall short.
Behind the scenes, prosecutors had expressed doubts early on.
According to the Times, some questioned whether there was ever enough evidence to justify charges in either case, raising concerns that the investigations were being driven less by legal merit and more by external pressure.
Neither Pirro nor the Justice Department have publicly confirmed those internal deliberations.
Biden has denied any allegation of wrongdoing, telling the Times Trump and his allies are “liars” and that as president he “made every decision” himself.
Trump’s demands to exact revenge against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey with bogus criminal indictments also failed.
And, for the record, the autopen is a robotic device that was patented in 1803 and reproduces a signature using real ink. Many presidents have used the autopen dating back to Thomas Jefferson, according to The Guardian.