Marjorie Taylor Greene says if Trump voids Biden's autopen pardons, Fauci should be prosecuted

WASHINGTON, DC: Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday, November 28, reacted to President Donald Trump voiding the autopen pardons by former President Joe Biden and said that Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted for "crimes against humanity."

The POTUS said on Friday that all documents signed using an autopen under Biden were "terminated," in a legally uncertain move as the Republican leader escalated attacks against his predecessor. 

Biden preemptively pardoned Anthony Fauci before leaving office

Following Donald Trump's decision, Marjorie Taylor Greene took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "If Autopen Pardons are repealed, then prosecute Fauci for crimes against humanity."

Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has long drawn the ire of Republicans for supporting pandemic public health measures and favoring the view that SARS-CoV-2 likely had a natural origin.

He also testified before Congress earlier that bat virus experiments funded by NIAID at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China did not fit the federal definition of gain-of-function (GOF) research that makes dangerous human viruses riskier. 

Following this, Republicans suggested that work was GOF research that created SARS-CoV-2, and some critics also said that Fauci should be charged with perjury.

Before leaving office in January, Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci, blocking Trump from prosecuting the former NIAID director for any actions he may have taken relating to the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf," Fauci said in a statement at the time.

Trump says all documents signed by Biden with autopen are 'terminated'

Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Friday, "Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect."

He added, "I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally."

Various autopen systems have been used by earlier presidents, but Trump has said their use under Biden proves that the former president was mentally incapacitated and not in control of the White House.

Interestingly, in 2005, the Justice Department said the president does not need to sign a bill by hand and can direct an official "to affix the president's signature to such a bill, for example by autopen." 

In 2011, The New York Times reported that Barack Obama had become the first POTUS to sign a bill by autopen while in Europe. 

Meanwhile, paper versions are still sometimes flown to the president for signing. 

During his last days in office, Biden issued pardons for people targeted by Trump — including his own son, lawmakers who probed Trump, a military general who had criticised the Republican leader, and a top Covid-19 expert.