The Oversight Project claimed that the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has slow-walked the release of documents related to former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen. The Justice Department attributed the delay to an increase in requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

“It’s very disappointing to hear the president again and again point to the urgent importance of the autopen scandal but for the Department of Justice to take the exact opposite position,” Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.

“They can simply hit the send button to move this forward but instead are wasting precious legal resources,” he added. “It shouldn’t take this long for Attorney General [Pam] Bondi to get the department in working order, particularly on this super high-profile issue.”

The Oversight Project posted on X Thursday morning that “instead of releasing those records per our demand, Trump’s Department of Justice is trotting out stock excuses to delay.”

“That’s unacceptable,” the project declared. “The American people need to know who the president was.”

UNFORTUNATE LITIGATION UPDATE

133 days is enough.

For reasons we cannot explain, @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche
are covering up records related to the Autopen Scandal. While we have been working with the White House and Congress on this matter, we now learn that the… pic.twitter.com/rxprZBGr5i

— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) July 24, 2025

The Oversight Project filed a lawsuit to demand the enforcement of FOIA on May 21. “133 days is enough,” the organization said on X Thursday, referring to the number of days since first filing a FOIA.

The Justice Department said it is “working as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

“This year, the Department has seen a historic increase in the number of FOIA requests received and is working as quickly and efficiently as possible to meet those demands,” a department spokeswoman told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “This Department of Justice is committed to transparency and ensuring accountability.”

The Oversight Project first drew attention to Biden’s use of an autopen, especially toward the end of his presidency. Biden withdrew from the presidential race last year following concerns about his health following his widely panned debate performance against Trump. In May, Biden’s office announced that the former president had late-stage prostate cancer, and many doctors say it is extremely likely Biden had cancer while in office, unbeknownst to the American people.

Biden spoke to The New York Times earlier this month about the issue, insisting that he made the decisions on which pardons to grant. Yet Biden also admitted that his staff used the autopen for the pardons “because they all fell into the same broad policy category.”

“Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed,” The Times reported. “Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.”

The Times reported that Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, approved pardons on Biden’s behalf. “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,” Zients wrote in an email, the outlet noted.

While it seems Biden aimed to put the issue to bed, the interview appears to have only raised more questions about the propriety of using an autopen to approve pardons.

The Oversight Project published a memo in March concluding that pardons are not valid if Biden delegated them to other people.

“If President Biden’s non-delegable official actions were not his own, then they are invalid,” the memo says. “Start with the Constitution. Multiple Constitutional provisions, like the pardon power, vest those powers solely in the president. In those cases, the president affixing his signature is his execution of the acts as president.”

In June, Trump directed the White House counsel, in coordination with Bondi and other officials, to investigate “to the extent permitted by law, whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.”

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said in a statement responding to Trump. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the autopen scandal on June 18, but the broadcast TV networks ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and PBS reportedly ignored the issue. Only NBC News devoted 34 seconds to the issue between June 18 and July 18, while the other networks did not mention it, according to a Media Research Center analysis.

House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has subpoenaed multiple Biden staffers to answer questions on the issue. Three former Biden officials—Biden physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former Jill Biden chief of staff Anthony Bernal, and former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini—have pleaded the Fifth Amendment in response to questions about Biden’s health and autopen use.