What’s an autopen? Here is what to know concerning the units utilized by presidents, writers and extra.

The autopen — a machine first patented centuries in the past — is having a second within the political highlight, following  allegations made by President Trump that former President Biden used one to signal pardons. 

That is prompting questions on what autopens do, how they work and why the system is now stirring up controversy. The units use pens or different writing devices to position an individual’s signature on paperwork, books or different papers, comparable to within the case of a school president, for instance, who would in any other case be required to signal a whole bunch or 1000’s of diplomas for graduating college students by hand.

Mr. Trump raised the problem in March when he claimed Mr. Biden’s alleged use of an autopen to signal preemptive pardons to members of the Home choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol rendered them “void” and “vacant.”

Mr. Trump raised the problem once more on Wednesday, when he posted on Fact Social, “Except the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!”

The autopen has additionally turn into a spotlight of the right-leaning Heritage Basis’s Oversight Mission, which claims that Mr. Biden’s alleged use of an autopen given his “clear cognitive decline … raises further questions for investigators.”

Whatever the allegations, the autopen is hardly a novel system for the political sphere, with the Shapell Manuscript Basis noting that one of many units was purchased by Thomas Jefferson quickly after it was patented in 1803. All through U.S. historical past, presidents have relied on autopens, though the Shapell Manuscript Basis notes that some commanders-in-chief have been guarded about their use of the machine. 

“Whereas as soon as the official White Home place was to disclaim the existence or utilization of the autopen, at present its existence is extra of an open secret,” the inspiration notes. 

A spokesperson for Mr. Biden did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

What’s an autopen?

An autopen, additionally known as a robotic pen, is a machine that automates an individual’s signature with a pen or different writing instrument, versus a scanned signature, which is a digital picture of a signature.

Not like folks, the machine won’t ever get author’s cramp, and might replicate an individual’s signature on excessive volumes of letters, certificates, diplomas and different paperwork, in response to Automated Signature Know-how, an autopen producer.

Its Ghostwriter machine makes use of a sensible card or USB flash drive to retailer signatures and phrases that may be replicated on paper. The corporate’s machines “write at human velocity … to supply high quality handwriting reproductions,” Automated Signature Know-how says.

The Ghostwriter can use any sort of writing instrument, from a ballpoint pen to crayons, and might write on a wide range of supplies with completely different thicknesses, it added. 

One other autopen producer, the Autopen Firm, stated its machines can be utilized for “signing certificates, correspondence, images and posters, nearly something as much as 1/4 inch thick. Manufacturing unit modifications could be integrated for signing books and sports activities memorabilia.”

One website that sells autopens says that high-end machines utilized by governments can value between $5,000 to $20,000 every.

Neither the Autopen Firm nor Automated Signature Know-how instantly responded to requests for remark from CBS MoneyWatch. 

Produce other presidents used autopens?

Sure. President Johnson even allowed the autopen to be photographed within the White Home. The photograph appeared in The Nationwide Enquirer with a 1968 article titled, “The Robotic That Sits in for the President,” in response to the Shapell Manuscript Basis. 

Different presidents who’ve relied on autopens embrace John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, amongst others. Presidents have usually used an autopen to signal routine correspondence to constituents, like letters recognizing life milestones, in addition to laws and pardons.

In the course of the Gerald Ford administration, the president and First Woman Betty Ford sometimes signed paperwork and different correspondence by hand, however White Home employees extra typically used autopen machines to breed their signatures on letters and images.

Mr. Trump has additionally used an autopen, telling reporters on Air Drive One in March that he’d used the system “just for very unimportant papers.”

“You realize, we get 1000’s and 1000’s of letters, letters of assist for younger folks, from folks that are not feeling properly, etcetera. However to signal pardons and all the issues that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful,” Mr. Trump stated on the time, in reference to his claims former President Biden used the know-how to signal pardons.

President George W. Bush requested the Justice Division in 2005 if it was constitutional to make use of an autopen to signal a invoice, with the division concluding that “the president needn’t personally carry out the bodily act of affixing his signature to a invoice he approves and decides to signal to ensure that the invoice to turn into legislation.

The Related Press

contributed to this report.