Klain says Biden personally decided to pardon Hunter; staff use of 'auto pen' and mass clemency questioned

Ronald Klain told the committee he had a post-election conversation with President Joe Biden in which the president stated, "I'm going to pardon Hunter." Klain said he discussed the political timing and breadth of such a pardon with the president but that the decision was Biden’s.

The committee asked Klain about press reporting and sourced documents suggesting staff sometimes finalized categorical clemency lists by running a final version through an "auto pen" rather than repeatedly asking the president to sign revised lists by hand. Klain said he was not present for the final two years of the administration and therefore could not confirm whether staff used that exact process in the period the committee was examining.

Klain described the ordinary pardon process during his tenure as rare and deliberative, with the Justice Department receiving applications and the White House reviewing criteria. He said the president once set standards for broad categorical pardons (Klain described the president’s authority to set criteria as equivalent to a presidential decision), and that staff later finalized lists consistent with those standards. Klain said he was surprised that some individuals who received clemency had serious violent convictions and that the number of people in federal prison for "mere possession" was smaller than public discussion had suggested.

Why it matters: The committee has signaled oversight interest in whether White House staff used an automated device or staff process to finalize and affix the president’s signature to mass clemency instruments and whether proper presidential authorization existed for large-scale pardons. Klain’s testimony confirms directly that the president told him he intended to pardon his son, and it also clarifies that, in Klain’s view, a president may give categorical criteria rather than signing every individual name.

What Klain would not confirm: Klain said he could not personally attest to press descriptions of an "auto pen" process in the administration’s final year because he had left the White House and had not observed the practice firsthand. He emphasized that when he was in the White House, the president typically approved standards and options; implementation and final lists were processed by staff and the Justice Department.