The Guardian reports the White House quietly replaced pardons posted online bearing strikingly similar copies of Trump’s signature compared to others that are distinctively variable.
“The corrections came after online commenters seized on the similarities in the president’s signature granting ‘full and unconditional’ pardons to seven men, including to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon,” the Guardian reported, adding that administration officials blamed “technical” errors.
“[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,” said Chad Gilmartin, a justice department spokesperson. “There is no story here other than the fact that President Trump signed seven pardons by hand and [the Department of Justice] posted those same seven pardons with seven unique signatures to our website.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson fussed at the media for noticing. “The media should spend their time investigating Joe Biden’s countless autopenned pardons, not covering a non-story.”
Trump has claimed that Biden was not aware of the signatures on orders and pardons bearing his name, and even replaced Biden’s portrait in a “Presidential Walk of Fame” with a picture of an autopen.
But critics pointed out that Trump told CBS News that he had “no idea who he is” when asked about his pardon of Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in 2023. Zhao’s company, Binance, even had a business relationship with the Trump family's crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, which generated considerable wealth for the Trump family.
Critics on social media blasted the White House.
“And there goes that. Why are they replacing his signature? Because it was done with the autopen and THEY GOT BUSTED,” posted one commenter on X. “MAGA, y’all are some of the most incompetent individuals that I’ve ever seen. And I worked in a Texas ER.”
“As bipartisan legal said, nothing wrong with using an auto pen. All presidents do,” said former Biden White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates on X. “But there's a lot wrong with treating Americans like they're stupid. Especially while stealing from them.”
Other critics slammed the fealty of Trump supporters writing: “Don't these Trumpanzees EVER get tired of the hypocrisy?” on X.
Read the Guardian report at this link.