Joe Biden addressed criticism surrounding his administration’s use of an autopen during a recent interview with The New York Times, defending the practice that has drawn scrutiny from Republican lawmakers and the current administration.

The interview, published Thursday, focused on Biden’s use of the autopen to authorize clemency for more than 1,500 individuals during the final weeks of his presidency.

At the time, the White House described the action as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president.

Speaking to The Times, Biden said he personally made the decisions behind the clemency effort. “We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people,” Biden said.

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Despite the former president’s assertion, The Times reported that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” according to both Biden and his aides.

Instead, the report said, he “signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence” after discussions about possible criteria.

Once those criteria were approved, White House aides implemented them, and the autopen was used to affix Biden’s signature to the final documents.

According to the report, the decision to use the autopen was made to avoid having the president repeatedly sign updated versions of official paperwork.

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The use of the device — which mechanically reproduces a person’s signature — has become a political flashpoint in recent months, with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders raising questions about how often it was used and whether it was appropriate.

In June, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to open a Department of Justice investigation into the use of the autopen during Biden’s presidency.

In a memo sent to the DOJ, Trump questioned whether the use of the device was connected to concerns about Biden’s mental acuity.

“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden's aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote.

“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

Also in June, President Trump addressed the issue with reporters, saying he found the use of the autopen “inappropriate,” even though previous administrations have used it in limited instances.

“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important,” Trump said.

“Even if you’re signing ambassadorships or — and I consider that important — I think it’s inappropriate.”

“You have somebody that’s devoting four years of their life or more to being an ambassador. I think that person deserves to get a real signature… not an autopen signature.”

The Department of Justice has not yet released a timeline for its review, but the probe is expected to examine internal White House processes and determine who had authority to deploy the autopen on Biden’s behalf.

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