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Zients: autopen used late in term for clemency; approvals involved White House counsel and deputy chief of staff
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Summary
In testimony to House Oversight, Jeffrey Zients described how an email from his office approved autopen use for pardons on the final day of the administration, said White House counsel and Bruce Reed led the clemency process, and characterized autopen as a legal logistical option when time and staffing were constrained.
During the transcribed interview, committee counsel presented an email chain and draft memos about the "auto pen" (autopen) and the process for presidential approvals. Counsel read a January 2021 draft decision memo about which documents should be hand-signed and later introduced a January 19, 2025 email (Exhibit 4/5 in the record) summarizing clemency decisions and indicating an approval transmitted from Zients' account: "I approve the use of the auto pen for the execution of all the following pardons."
Zients told the committee he did not personally compose the message but said Rosa Poe, his chief of staff, called him with a readout after a meeting in which White House counsel Ed Siskel and deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed participated. He described a tightly staffed, time-sensitive end-of-term environment: "Rosa asked me about if I approved everything, and I said yes. And then she did what she did on occasion, which was to send the email because I was at home, and she was there, and the time was of the essence."
Zients emphasized that pardons were the subject of many meetings and iterations with the president and that the White House counsel and Bruce Reed were the points of contact for legal and process issues. On the general legal question of autopen use, Zients said autopen is legally permitted and was used when logistics required it (for example, to execute important documents when the president was not physically available), but he also said that in most important cases the team sought a wet signature if feasible.
On whether autopen or any clemency had been executed "without the president's knowledge or authorization," Zients replied: "Absolutely not." He also said the clemency process involved significant presidential engagement and repeated briefings, and that he assumed White House counsel coordinated the necessary consultations with the Justice Department and others when appropriate.
