Robots Signed the Pardons, Missiles Sank the Boats: Human Rights, Autopen Scandal, and Law of the Sea Accountability Tonight

Tonight on International Flavor: Where the Truth Just Tastes Better—we connect two threads of executive convenience: robot-signed pardons in Washington and missile-struck “suspect” boats on the high seas. We break down the autopen paper trail, the late-term clemency sprint, and why provenance matters in law. Then we hit the Caribbean/Pacific campaign against alleged drug craft: UNCLOS, Saiga, flag-state consent, and the right to life at sea. Evidence over explosions, signatures over vibes. It’s a fast, receipt-heavy hour and a half—with solutions, not just outrage.

Thanks for listening to International Flavor with Samuel Trapp, where truth crosses borders and censorship ends at the mic.

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Broadcast from Dam Radio, Lake Ozark, Missouri Hosted by Samuel Trapp

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's incredibly awesome music to bring you some
incredibly awesome political talk on damn radio Just
makes me feel like Saying hey, how you
doing?
I'm Samuel trap This is international flavor You're
here on damn radio.

(00:21):
You can listen to me every night on
damn radio 9 o'clock 1030 love it.
I'm here live at the Lake Ozark Real
estate of the art studio So I came
in a little bit early and Harassed the
old Ike stir Who I like talking to

(00:41):
because I just think he's an interesting guy
anyway but I heard him chatting about something
similar to what I was gonna kind of
go off on today and that is these
continual Bombing killing of boats in the Caribbean

(01:03):
by the Trump administration, you know, no No
trial necessary No discussion this We say we
say we should trust the government, right?
We must trust the government To make sure
that we're not just blowing people up.
So Let's say let's let's give you a

(01:25):
couple of examples here just for anybody knows
I'm talking about the boats that are alleged
drug smuggling boats leaving from Venezuela somewhere and
then they get a little bit out and
then they get just blown up and No,
no discussion.
No Hey, that wouldn't happen to be your

(01:47):
wife on board.
That doesn't have anything to do with it
Would it you know the one that's forced
to get on and come with you And
you blow up the boat anyway, or what
if you're a six-year-old sons in
the hold does that stop them from?
Blowing up the boat.
I don't know probably not I Got some

(02:08):
interesting comments on it and I was listening
and so I came in and began to
rap with him About it and he you
know, he has his views I've mind they
coincide In many ways and then again, sometimes
they don't Which is okay, you know, everybody's
you know, I appreciate other points of view

(02:29):
and I don't Presume to tell anybody they
can believe what they want or they have
to believe like me I don't give a
rip, you know that I just believe what
I believe and I usually Attempt to back
it up with my own beliefs.
So You know and in keeping with that
tonight.

(02:50):
I have two things.
I want to talk about one I had
some time to go over the Auto pen
fiasco and the evidence did well you want
to call it that the document that I
downloaded for for JR and I I Was
able to go through it in a fairly
detailed fashion So that'll be kind of fun.

(03:12):
But before I do that, I wanted to
Talk to you a little bit about something
called article 17 of the 1988 United Nations
Convention against the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs

(03:35):
and psychotropic substances So it's in short they
call it the illicit traffic by sea and
So I'm gonna read you parts of this.
Okay Basically what it starts out with the
parties shall cooperate to the fullest extent possible

(03:57):
to suppress illicit traffic by sea in conformity
with the International law of the sea.
Okay What article 17 provides in you know,
plain English?
is It provides assistance to suppress at sea

(04:19):
which means if a state suspects a vessel
flying its own flag a US ship following
a US flag or Without a flag or
marks of registry is used for drug trafficking
It may ask other states for help those

(04:42):
asked shall Render assistance within their means so
if somebody asks you Then you have to
or you know, you shall render assistance okay,
that's if it's under your own flag a
suspect vessel under another flag If a state

(05:03):
suspects a vessel on the high seas is
engaged in a lift in illicit traffic and
It flies the flag of another state country.
It may one notify the flag state to
request confirmation of registry and if confirmed three

(05:24):
request authorization from the flag state to take
appropriate measures The flag state what the flag
state may authorize this they can authorize something
authorizations can include a boarding the vessel be
Searching the vessel see if evidence is found

(05:46):
taking appropriate action regarding the vessel persons and
cargo This is United Nations Treaty language.
We're talking about Which the u.s. Is
a part of we'll get to that in
a minute Safety and interests that are protected
all action must account for safety of life

(06:08):
Safety of life safety of life.
I repeat at sea Security of the vessel
or cargo and avoid prejudiced prejudicing commercial or
legal interests of the flag state or other
interested states Hmm Conditions by the flag state

(06:31):
the flag state may attach conditions including on
responsibility to any authorization that they grant fast
responses and designated authorities states must respond expeditiously
to registry and authorization requests and must designate

(06:55):
an authority to receive respond This designation is
notified via whom the UN Secretary General within
one month Informing so they had the UN
has to be notified of this, you know,
even after the fact informing of results any

(07:16):
state That takes action under article 17 must
promptly inform the flag state of the outcome
They have to encourage bilateral and regional agreements
states should consider agreements to implement or enhance
article 17 cooperation 9 I Mean, I'm sorry

(07:40):
only government ships and aircraft Enforcement actions under
the the nine.
Well the the previous may be carried out
only by warships military aircraft or clearly marked
government service vessels or aircraft Coastal state rights

(08:02):
preserved any action must not interfere with coastal
state rights or jurisdiction under the International Law
of the Sea Okay, this is on page
197 198 of the UN Treaty Series PDF
you can find that online check it out
So the u.s. Is a signatory to

(08:25):
this agreement it was signed by the u
.s. the 20th of December 1988 in Vienna
it was ratified by the United States on
the 20th of February of 1990 and the
convention all of it entered into force on
the 11th of November of 1990 thus binding

(08:45):
the u.s. From that date since the
u.s. Had already ratified it Before it
entered into force now the u.s. Put
a dis exclusion and said we're not bound
by article 32 which regards Dispute settlement, so
they said we're not bound by one Article,

(09:06):
but we are bound by the rest.
They ratified it.
It's a treaty It's a law of the
United States, okay?
That's how you do it Um so I
think A Inappropriate response Is

(09:33):
not to blow up a ship I Just
I just don't think that's appropriate.
I I I Don't know I I had
a discussion with Ike about it and said
you know in my view.
It's just un-american you know we don't
I Don't agree with that.

(09:56):
I gave him an example of back away
back when when I was practicing law And
there were some drug runners that I was
dealing with and helping to defend in court
You know give the example of let's say
you know they're drug runners, and you know
they're coming up from from Oklahoma and Texas
and that they are Bringing drugs through the

(10:21):
United States does that authorize blowing them up
or Killing them just because and let's say
you absolutely know and now what difference does
it make if it's on the sea or
in a car?
Or in a truck or in anything?
Those are just a few comments that I
have and I'm gonna go into a little
bit further based on this But I also

(10:42):
thought it might be interesting to point out
That Venezuela is also a party to this
Agreement this treaty they signed it on the
20th of December 1988 same day in Vienna
Austria they ratified it on the 16th of
July of 1991 and thus Venezuela's also bound

(11:08):
by this convention upon joining Venezuela filed interpretive
Declarations the convention the convention is not a
legal basis to extradite Venezuelan citizens and controlled
delivery Applies only in so far as that

(11:29):
is consistent with the national law so they
put two exceptions on there that their national
law deals with criminal sorts of Penalties and
Investigations and all that sort of thing but
in general everybody is bound by this and

(11:49):
I've given you what article 17 requires and
Obviously, we're not doing it We're not and
I suppose You could say well, why would
we hmm?
I don't know sounds curious doesn't it but
I want to go into just a Short

(12:10):
little Diatribe about this and if you feel
like calling in it's an interesting topic And
I do appreciate other points views if you
feel like dying Diving in with me five
seven three seven four six eighty twenty and
I'd be happy to chat with you Let's
see so basically What's the difference between?

(12:34):
The law of the sea which I just
read to you and bomb first and ask
questions later I Mean, you know like me.
Let's ask questions later like is there perhaps
a spouse on board?
Maybe she didn't do anything or him.
Maybe there's a kid on there Maybe there's

(12:55):
a 15 year old daughter of somebody that
you know might look like an adult But
isn't you just blow up the boat you
don't it doesn't matter who's there nothing hmm,
so if you're a cop at sea Does
the badge turn your Torpedoes into a gun
to fire willy-nilly because you don't like
to look at the boat or your best

(13:15):
friend told you that Somebody's carrying drugs The
high seas is supposed to run on rules
Hmm what are ours?
The rule book on the high seas a
ship answers to its own flag state Other
states can only board for very narrow reasons

(13:37):
piracy slave trade statelessness or with flag state
consent for drug states That's 1988 Vienna Convention
article 17 that I already outlined to you
even then Force has to be necessary Reasonable
and aimed not to endanger life that isn't

(14:00):
poetry That's not Sam that is black letter
law of the sea, okay Let's let's look
at this the something called the Saiga rule
is the international sea law That you hit

(14:20):
you know you have to warn them first
De-escalate and not endanger life when enforcing
law at sea So in this case, which
was a 19 99 Case the international law
of the sea case 1999 Guinea used excessive

(14:41):
force and the tribunal said nope can't do
that And it wrote the standard for the
whole new world that I mean that the
world cites now So, you know, maybe we
could have a mug for you know To
provide for the president in his and his
crowd that says life over seizures or maybe

(15:01):
put it in a On a t-shirt
or something There's another case a case of
Guyana versus Suriname threats are force as well
Suriname pointed guns at a drilling rig and
what did the tribunal say?
That is an unlawful threat of forced force

(15:22):
that is not law enforcement, so what's the
translation?
menacing a civilian vessel crosses the line Bombing
it, you know, we have pole vaulted pole
vaulted over the line, right?
Let's let's give you another case Sound bite
number three.
It said this one.

(15:43):
Well, I can't play it because it's another
language.
I had to translate it I'm alone deja
vu Canada versus the United States the Coast
Guard sank a Prohibition era rumrunner called I'm
alone on the high seas and the u
.s. Ended up paying Okay, that was nearly

(16:04):
a century ago Nearly a century later.
The warning is still a valid warning, you
know, the you sink a smuggler at sea
Expect a legal bill and a you know
diplomatic migraine headache So how are drug cases?
Supposed to work.

(16:25):
Well, I read you how the article 17
works For narcotics two flags use flag state
consent under Vienna 1988 and regional agreements if
they have any Council of Europe's article 17
implementing pact There is one you hail you
pursue you board you seize and you arrest

(16:48):
if you must use force It's warning shots
then engine disabling fire Deadly force only to
protect life.
That is the u.s. Playbook on paper
Right Department of Homeland Security US Coast Guard
policy sinking comes after the rescue or to

(17:12):
remove a hazard Not as a rolling punishment
from 10,000 feet, right?
So why does it matter?
Because since early September Washington has carried out
a string.
I can't tell you anymore I think it's
close to 10 of Missile and airstrikes on
small boats in the Caribbean and now in

(17:34):
the Eastern Pacific killing dozens with Colombia UN
experts and plenty of law of the sea
nerds crying foul Even if you wanted a
tough anti cartel message the law enforcement Paradigm
still governs on the high seas.
You can't just declare an all-ocean war

(17:58):
so under the law that actually exists to
sequences hail board seize prosecute what we've seen
is detect allegedly strike Absolutely, and bury the
evidence that is not enforcement That's extra judicial

(18:18):
shortcut in a splash zone.
This is crap in my opinion Let's talk
about human rights, okay Human rights, I don't
believe are tethered to someone's zip code You
know human rights are human rights if your
agents control or target people at sea Your

(18:42):
obligations travel with them, right our obligation for
law enforcement Isn't it?
You know you leave the border suddenly you
can kill whoever you want But that's how
we're doing it.
It's this is wrong The here's another one
her seed Jama in 2012 the court held

(19:04):
that acts by state vessels on the high
seas trigger that states human rights Jurisdiction, how
do you like this so if the u
.s.? Takes an action on the high seas
against a criminal ship from another jurisdiction another
country our our Human rights jurisdiction is triggered

(19:31):
which means they should get the same treatment
as a citizen Because we're bombing them.
How do you like that?
That's law.
This is this is law.
This is precedent It's already been done.
We're not doing it So why doesn't why
doesn't the rest of the world trust us
we create whatever rules we want treaty no

(19:52):
treaty doesn't matter We just do what we
want if you intercept or push back migrants
your right to life Duties follow you off
the beach the principle doesn't vanish when the
target is a suspected smuggler Here's a 1997
case Haitian interdiction the Inter-American Commission Said

(20:17):
that the u.s..
Interdiction program stopping people Violated international law because
it couldn't fairly assess in the asylum claim
and protected right at sea Read that again
with missiles in your head instead of boarding
ladders So I'm not saying I agree with
it.

(20:38):
I'm saying that's the state of the law
right now that if you are stopping Haitians
and You are stopping them and turning them
around that as soon as you stop them
and begin to question them our human rights
our policies on What do you call it?

(21:01):
Asylum Take take effect now.
I don't necessarily agree with that, but that's
international law right there Uh, let's see UN
right to life Baselines, okay the UN Charter
basic principles on the use of force and

(21:24):
fire arms this is UN which we ignore
because we can We do say that lethal
force is for imminent Threats to life only
not for destroying evidence Not for stopping property
crime and the Human Rights Committee's general comment

(21:46):
number 36 Hammers on that no arbitrary deprivation
of life is allowed even in emergencies and
conflicts That's what you on UN people are
saying right now So there's a group of
human rights experts from the UN that calls
these maritime kills No, which is the same

(22:08):
thing.
I call them Extrajudicial execution in international waters
full stop warning of the UN Charter breach
and Regional destabilization, okay, we are breaking the
UN Charter we are just doing what we

(22:32):
feel like why because we have the bigger
warships and because we Care about our own
politics and what hopefully people look at this
and go yeah get those drug runners You
don't know that they're drug running.
I mean Jesus I Don't know how hard
we have to push this, you know, how

(22:52):
would you like do unto others?
Let's talk about do you know people call
up ask about Jesus and I'm not against
it You know do unto others Then split
is that what it says in you know
do under do unto others and then get
the hell out of here quick for Somebody
catches us.
No, it's do unto others as You would
have them do unto you isn't that how

(23:14):
it goes, right?
But no, no, no, we just blow them
up.
Now.
Let's ask questions later, right or don't ask
questions ago We're like the kids sitting at
the back of the bus shooting spitballs toward
the front, you know Somebody looks back and
catch what you know, that kid's a dick

(23:35):
And you should we can shoot him in
the head he started it right, you know
Look what he's doing.
He's doing bad stuff, you know, I should
therefore, you know one horror story shouldn't be
get another right So I'm very much against
this.
Maybe you can tell What are our friends

(23:56):
on the other side of the planet saying
This has been pretty blunt coverage six killed
in The Caribbean five killed in the Pacific.
There's probably more Washington is calling this a
war on cartels But neighbors are calling it
Murder, that's what I call it.

(24:18):
It's the Monroe Doctrine in deck shoes.
We can do whatever we want.
Why?
Manifest destiny, baby.
We're supposed to be there, you know, Columbia's
government Normally pretty tight with Washington and remember
Columbia used to be, you know It's all
nothing but drug lords when I went to
Columbia for New Year's Year and a half

(24:38):
two years ago.
Can't remember might only been so last year
You know might only been last year that
I went for New Year's to Columbia.
What a beautiful country.
What a fantastic country Maybe they do sell
drugs there and if they're drug lords, you
know growing stuff and in the mountains But
I was way up in the mountains and
it's freaking fantastic and there there are Americans
everywhere So, you know riding bicycles all over

(25:02):
to pace place beautiful highways I thought the
u.s. Might have purchased Columbia a long
time ago, you know Because we've been trying
to buy him out.
You sure as hell don't want him in
bed with China according to the government.
I don't give a crap frankly.
I Just want a nice place to travel
to but I you know, I don't I
don't want drugs going anywhere but I sure

(25:23):
as hell don't want to take all things
American and just crap on them because you
know, we allege that there's somebody that you
know Running drugs, right?
So we and we just blow them up
execution Execution is what this is so if

(25:47):
your law enforcement plan at sea is Boom
splash no boarding report.
Don't be shocked when the UN's, you know
Complaining that this is extrajudicial Because it is
you can't save American lives by skipping the
very legal tests designed to Separate criminals from

(26:10):
fishermen.
That's why the tests exist you know I
in in our own country and Internationally, there
is zero excuse for this zero.
I think it's a What do you call
it a squirrel to look, you know to
get you to look the other way squirrel
You look at see the dog look over

(26:32):
here.
Don't pay attention to this.
This is crap Um Let's talk about the
evidence problem Washington has no public evidence That
these boats any of them any of them
carry drugs Much less that these boats post
any imminent threat to life to anyone by

(26:57):
drugs or otherwise Reporters and regional officials say
several routes targeted aren't even the main pathway
for u.s. Bound fentanyl Families of the
dead say some were fishermen Meanwhile bodies and
cargo are vaporized So good luck litigating truth

(27:18):
after that Let's talk about effectiveness in the
theater surrounding that if The goal is interdiction
the Coast Guard not air-to-surface munitions
should be the doctrine The government accounting office

(27:38):
has dinged DHS and its partners for years
on performance gaps related to drug enforcement, but
the answer has never been skip boarding the
boats at all even the DOD says When
it does maritime law enforcement under u.s.
Coast Guard control it follows u.s. Coast

(28:00):
Guard policy warning shots engine stops rescue bomb
first is completely outside the bounds of legality
Backsplash which which which to which the horror
story of this you're normalizing Sink on site

(28:22):
You're writing the talking points for every state
that wants to shoot first at boats it
doesn't like does that mean that up in
the Baltic Sea the Lithuanians see a Russian
tanker ship that is or a ship suspected

(28:42):
of carrying Russian oil Does that mean they
can blow it up?
I mean, that's a legal activity, right?
They're breaking sanctions You know depending on how
you look at it, I suppose but it's
nonsense, you know You just blow it up.

(29:02):
That's you know, that's why the threat of
force is Unlawful remember the guy on a
verse Surinam case because there's precedent we've done
this before But we ignore it.
We completely ignore it.
This is this is nonsense and be freakin
s so between September and now media accounts

(29:25):
put the dead in dozens AP Guardian Al
Jazeera Reuters and even RT Russia today all
tally fatal strikes and widening Geography they've gone
from the Caribbean to the Pacific Colombia and
Venezuela have taken this issue to the UN

(29:45):
This isn't niche.
It's on the floor of the Security Council
Where Russia's the president till the end of
the week?
What to say to but it works, you
know if somebody comes to you and says
but wait a minute this works If you
mean by works People die and there's a

(30:05):
boom sure But is this law enforcement?
This is this crap law enforcement is supposed
to be an accountable process a professional Accountable
process the Coast Guard's own history and DHS
policies you warn them you board them you
collect evidence and then you prosecute You don't

(30:27):
pre detonate the chain of custody.
So there is no evidence.
I mean, this is nuts Where do we
get to the big boy package?
Where do we get to the remember?
They always used to talk about the grown
-ups entering the room I hate to think
that I myself am actually a grown-up
But let me give a couple of suggestions

(30:47):
What if we?
recenter flag state consent and boarding under Vienna
1988 article 17 workflow publish monthly stats requests
approvals interdictions Prosecutions if the route is real

(31:09):
We'll see it We'll be able to see
it right Follow the force ladder hail warn
disable rescue No, lethal fire and less imminent
threat to life.
So if you're bombing somebody from 10,000
feet Even there you don't even have to

(31:30):
be but you make sure to video it
right now.
We're gonna get these guys We're gonna blow
them up, this is gonna be great and
you blow them up and you make sure
you got a video and If you can
do that Why can't you at least wait
and see if they're gonna be a threat

(31:51):
to you when you pull up your Coast
Guard cutter?
Why don't you track them?
I mean, obviously you got a video of
the blowing them up out in international waters
Why can't you track them?
I Don't know.
What about What about you Put body cams

(32:13):
on boats seriously, what if you require sensor
and video capture airframe ship frame before Something
before any sort of threat auto release sanitized
clips within 30 days absent Operational harm if
you can post a strike video you can

(32:33):
post the boarding refusal video too.
Can't you I Don't know.
What about a regional task force fund the
a regional task force Operations that put boarding
teams on the water with partner Navy or
Coast Guard Government accounting office says performance is

(32:55):
lagging anyway So solve that with assets not
with air-to-surface, you know missiles What
about right-to-life training?
I mean, don't you think that UN basic
principles human?
Basic principles are you don't just go kill
anybody, you know People should have to watch

(33:17):
this if troops can recite what the escalation
of force is They should be able to
say lethal only to protect life This isn't
the protection of life.
This is the destruction of a boat from
10,000 feet How is that protecting anything?

(33:38):
Yeah, I mean Zero evidence.
What do you got?
independent after-action review of every Lethal maritime
strike with a public summary if you can't
justify it to a judge or a journalist
You shouldn't be able to justify the missile
So, I don't know.

(33:58):
That's about all I got on this topic
for tonight.
I mean call me old-fashioned Call me.
I don't know what a pacifist.
I'm not but if you claim a boat
is a floating pharmacy Maybe you should board
it and show me the pills Before you
turn it into a an addition to the
coral reef below otherwise, you're just Conducting law

(34:24):
by explosion and yet another Do what I?
Do what I say, you know Tell me
this is what it is in I law
for thee, but not for me I don't
we don't have to anybody other people have
to follow those treaties.
We don't have to wear America Why the
heck would we follow that I mean, come

(34:46):
on these people are drug runners We need
to blow them up, right?
I don't believe that.
I think it's a Nonsensical nonsense, so I
don't know I think so and here's my
comparison for you So I brought that up
and I wanted to talk about it tonight

(35:07):
on purpose Because I have a another topic
that I'm gonna get into over the next
hour And I'm hoping I have enough time
to get through it Because it's a lot
of a lot of content and it is
the Biden auto pen to people have been
talking about especially since that report came out

(35:29):
yesterday and I've got I've got some some
stuff for you so basically this report Geez
it zeroes in on the wrongdoing by Biden
era apologists for his condition Let's talk about
who's implicated in the auto pen chain and

(35:51):
why?
what was signed by auto pen with a
special focus on the pardons and Then a
summary of witnesses that because there were decent
amount of witnesses Interviewed and I've gone through
them all.
Okay, and Basically there was a cover-up
and then manipulation of The auto pen after

(36:13):
this so let's let's take a quick look
about this So I want to talk about
the severity level high severity Severity those that
interfered with the legal or process integrity, right
the use of the auto pen for presidential
actions without a robust contemporaneous approval process like

(36:36):
for example Handwritten signatures recommended by White House
lawyers for pardons were not followed approvals routed
by email or staff sent messages as principles
some approvals were outsourced to the vice president
per a memo that was Talked about and

(36:58):
then there was concealing and stonewalling on who
actually Operated the auto pen and nobody tracked
whether documents Including clemency documents or hand-signed
or auto pen signed Chief of staff science
could not name the operator of the auto
pen How do you like that and the

(37:21):
executive clerk's office?
Is allegedly the one who pushed the button?
So those are pretty high severity that is
those those are things being done that that
are supposed to be done by the President
that were done by somebody else then there's
ones that are medium sorts of Severity deception

(37:43):
obstruction of public understanding centralized communication strategy that
fed press room binders with prepared lines Calling
everything a cheap fake and sidestepped the physician
on health specifics KJP Kim Jean-pierre, whatever
name was said the binder didn't note authorship.

(38:06):
You know, she didn't know who wrote it.
She just read it and And they never
talked about who was the medical authority never
brought him into the room And then they
had actual Hollywood coaches and stage management So
on delivery language, well, you know minimizing steps
and walks how to do this Maintain optics

(38:26):
despite internal concerns that were really there.
Those are medium and then and then they
have some lower Severity political spin, you know
control of the narrative that type of thing
and they would all you remember these they
would always dismiss public concerns about cognition as
mere age talk or public Speculation and this

(38:49):
was even after the her report described Biden
as an elderly man with a poor memory
So the bottom line to report the whole
of it frames process violations as the gravest
exposure comms and optics misconduct is Systematic and
spin and denial is pervasive The committee asks

(39:11):
the Department of Justice to investigate and treat
open sign open Auto pen signed executive action
as void that's actually in it Okay, so
let's talk about the chain of the auto
pen who they questioned and why?
They questioned Jeff sites chief staff Could not

(39:33):
identify who physically operated the auto pen permitted
staff routed email approvals His aide Rosa Poe
emailed as him to authorize the auto pen
So he didn't even see them this Rosa
Poe did Communication teams controlled talking points on
hunter Biden pardon never even ran it by

(39:55):
him Then there's the press secretary near attendant.
She oversaw auto-pen processing But did not
track whether the president hand signed or used
the auto pen.
She relied on the executive clerk to flag
auto pen items and She only saw them
later in her tenure Guy named Bruce Reed

(40:18):
deputy chief staff at Cisco White House Council
in the approval routing and legal risk loop
They are cited in testimony around auto pen
process and debate But no real process David
Colbaugh who's an executive clerk office like his
office likely Operated the auto pen per testimony

(40:41):
and was the center of mechanical execution This
Rosa Poe on zaint staff she sent the
auto pen Authorization as jay-z as science
email in the hunter Biden pardon So there
was Rosa Poe that sent it Ron Klain

(41:01):
former chief staff Acknowledged verbal authorizations were sometimes
used like fan vaccine mandate defense memo rather
than formal sign-off procedures And then the
vice president's office to report cites a memo
indicating auto pen Operations and approvals were at

(41:23):
times.
They didn't say how many to outsourced to
the vice president Why they're being questions because
the approval process is opaque not transparent email
in lieu of formal sign-off or verbal
Non tracking of the hand versatile pen Unknown
who operated it physically and policy and legal

(41:46):
memos Legal memos urged hand signature for pardons.
That was completely disregarded so Let's see What
was actually signed by auto pen at least
32 of 51 Clemency warrants in the Biden

(42:09):
years were auto pen signed.
This is according to the oversight project the
January 19 2025 pardons the ones right before
he left office Five members of the Biden
family auto pen.
Dr. Fauci auto pen Mark Milley Auto pen

(42:31):
members of the house January 6 select committee
and their staffs The report says many of
these were auto pen signed and links to
DOJ's pardons granted by President Biden for the
master list White House legal memoranda recommend hand
signatures on pardons, but instead approvals arrived by

(42:54):
email from this Poe lady Wow This document
does not print a full recipient by recipient
roster So we don't have the all the
names not in this one But they just
lump them all together and say many in
the group were auto pen for a complete
roster It reports it points to the DOJ's

(43:17):
pardon attorneys public log For the time period
the Biden was in office So here's what
the witness testimony says in in a nutshell
None of them are too horribly long, but
there's like 10 12 of them So I'll
tell you what they say this near a
tangerine whose staff secretary She oversaw auto pen
routing She had no systematic tracking of hand

(43:41):
versus auto pen This is what she said
the executive clerk flagged auto pen items fewer
cabinet meetings and distance from POTUS Acknowledged elsewhere
in findings, but that's that's her Ashley Williams
deputy director of the Oval Office described This
was on July 11th described meticulous stage management

(44:04):
of events denied or deflective deflected cognition talk
as a public speculation Claimed any staff who
needed access had it the committee says that
is not credible Ron claimed the chief of
staff.
He was interviewed on July 24 He admitted
that verbal approvals replaced formal processes and he

(44:27):
pushed early debate to blunt Age concerns that
he pushed it after the debates were effed
The we're we're F moment.
He considered conceded that it was a very
big political problem Steve Rischetti Who was interviewed
on July 30, he denied that the debate

(44:50):
proved cognitive struggle He said I don't agree
He was involved in a withdrawal letter letter
drafting where Biden was coming out of the
race He was accused in the report of
withholding negative polls, but he denied it Mike
Donilon senior advisor.
He was interviewed July 31st Financially incentivized by

(45:14):
a campaign role about four million potentially eight
He was pressed to lighten Biden schedule when
Biden was tired He was accused of controlling
polling flow to POTUS.
He didn't give it to him, but he
denies that Bruce Reed the deputy chief of
staff was interviewed on August 5th He said

(45:36):
he was in the he was supposed to
be in the auto pen approval loop But
he described Hollywood involvement in the debate prep.
He gave a variant rationale on an earlier
debate Calendar not age.
He said it was, you know all calendar
Anita Dunn senior advisor For communications on August

(45:57):
7.
She ran comm she hired Bates and Sam's
downplayed Cognition as an age issue and helped
set the early debate and Has passed on
these comms talking points to KJP In Sam's

(46:18):
the White House spokesperson said part of the
team.
He was part of the team that labeled
hers cognition rationale Gratuitous in their press strategy,
you know that didn't need to be put
out there.
He said Andrew Bates senior depart see senior
press secretary September the 5th high volume communications

(46:41):
operator He was part of the tight senior
managed message flow and limited POTUS access according
to his own stuff Kareem Jean Pierre press
secretary September 12 relied on Prepared talking points
Especially with relation to the cheap fakes line.

(47:02):
She referred health questions to communications not to
the physician She admitted unknown authorship of binders,
you know for Kim Jong pierre or Kim
jump in whatever However, you say your name
denied recalling concerns at the time and acknowledged
that There were contradiction by POTUS on China

(47:24):
and Taiwan So here's your chief of staff
Jeff Sainz Acknowledged increasing stumbles and recall issues
of the president.
They were more common across time Could not
say who operated the auto pen.
He noted donor concerns about Teleprompters and the
reliance thereon and post debate.

(47:46):
He urged Biden to drop out He also
took some depositions dr.
Kevin O'Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment He
sent a memo to KJP about neurologist visits
and omitted cognition test details The report paints
him has complicit with political staff In you

(48:10):
know making sure this went forward Anthony Bernal
July 16th Invoked the Fifth Amendment also listed
as a close observer of the inner circle,
but no information forthcoming Annie Tomasini deputy chief
of staff for operations July 18th Invoked the

(48:32):
Fifth Amendment Alleged that she had control and
over all access and scheduling to Biden question
raised whether she discouraged medical review Committee cites
this report on internal wheelchair discussions getting him
a wheelchair so This is unbelievable stuff in

(48:57):
it Let's see Where we gonna go?
about this so dr.
O'Connor was Complicit this medical cover-up
the physician stonewalling he invoked a fifth rather
than answer questions the comms leaders not the

(49:19):
doctor shaped health messaging and KGP relied on
prepared talking points the Hollywood coaching was talked
about the Workload lightning, you know, you need
him because he was falling apart and I
mean we all saw this.
It's not like We need some report later

(49:39):
We watched the man be a mess in
there.
And so but his inner circle was all
involved in this cover-up, right?
I mean, this is this is unbelievable stuff
Let's see.
I'm gonna get to What the biggest parts
of this are The Machinery literally the auto,

(50:06):
you know how you get the auto pen
to work.
It's not a metaphor It's a device that
reproduces a signature.
It's harmless for routine letters, right?
Cute even except this report says the machine
wandered into the high church of state power
executive actions and clemency pardons Commutations the stuff

(50:30):
where the Constitution expects a conscious and Accountable
human to say yes, I the president choose
this Instead we got sure hit the button
You know press the button then we talk
about the chain of custody.
That wasn't in An alleged normal government the

(50:51):
path of a decision is documented You know
kind of like scene of a crime who
has the file who briefed the president who
signed when By hand or by machine, that's
how it's supposed to go But in Biden
government, it's like some sort of scavenger hunt
run by a bunch of interns on a
caffeine cleanse the president's decision materials move through

(51:15):
aids valets residential staff sometimes logs most time
not Staff secretary the person supposedly regarding this
paper vault saw the president only every six
to eight weeks and Didn't track which documents
he hand-signed versus auto pen.
That's in their own words You know, they're

(51:36):
talking about this is me making crap up.
So then they had the 2025 January 19
clemency sprint the final hours pardon Palooza The
report Reconstructs this like a bad game of
telephone tag the meeting happens with a senior
aid chief of staff is an air Isn't

(51:58):
there aid calls the chief at home chief
says, okay use the auto pen by email
Yes by email for multiple pardons Then the
staff secretary's office shuttles the order to the
executive clerk team who apparently Physically hit the
auto pen who actually operated the machine Nobody
knows who documented the president's direct approval on

(52:19):
paper contemporaneously as the lawyer recommend for pardons
That's what we're looking out for and so
far There's nothing there and who is in
the favored slice to report says that state
included five members of Biden's family dr.
Anthony Fauci General Milley and members of the

(52:41):
staff of the January 6th committee like I
told you And then we got apologists those
people who go, you know arrange the paper
approve the paper explain the paper chief of
staff says auto pen was Versus hand was
a logistics issue staff secretary oversaw the workflow,
but didn't track the difference executive clerk shop

(53:01):
like likely press the button like I said
and Then there's a communication cell shell game
Cheap fakes they were told about the president's
health We're told it's all just age just
lighting just cold just the stairs press secretary
reads talking points from a binder She didn't
write and can't attribute who did the president's

(53:23):
doctors a political fog machine whose paperwork omits
the thing People actually wish to know Hollywood
is coaching the State of the Union like
a Netflix pilot and Donors whisper about the
teleprompter being glued to the podium Let's talk
about lawyers a little bit, you know, I

(53:43):
love this part right White House counsel types
reportedly advised that Pardon should be hand-signed
Not maybe not if you have time hand
-signed Why?
Because clemency isn't a ribbon-cutting.
It's one of the most serious acts a
president takes And yet we have a process

(54:07):
documented in this report Which you can download
online the auto pen presidency where email relays
and verbal approvals are a substitute for the
president's?
Pen and an auto scribbler gets to call
like it, you know You know gets the
call to you know Do something like a
picture in the bullpen in the ninth inning

(54:28):
the committee's conclusion on this if you can't
show the president Actually approved it Void it
I'm not so sure.
I'm against that.
I mean, I doubt it'll ever happen.
But you know, here you go Let's see,
I told you about the 32 of 51.
What are the stakes?

(54:49):
Is this just a gotcha about pens?
I'm not so sure.
It's about whether the presidency can delegate his
presence without documentation If you're gonna run the
modern White House like, you know, I don't
know Like you're you know, Amazon shopping cart

(55:11):
Okay But you have then you have to
be a fanatic about who's doing the record
-keeping Who briefed what what was decided how
it was?
Memorialized memorialized who signed and what method they
you know?
signed with If you don't do that You

(55:31):
don't have a White House right So, what
do we do with all this?
I'm not so sure anything will happen out
of any of this.
It's a grand little report.
I Mean remember the 9-11 report the
hell we do with that except take away
rights of normal Americans, right What's anybody gonna

(55:54):
do on this?
nothing so I Don't know I Remember this
Tandon lady I'm gonna underline what she said,
you know I Mean think about this decision

(56:15):
materials This is a binder with memos card
boxes agree disagree discuss The civics class stuff
that proves a human with article two powers
actually read the words Before the country had
to live with them who owned this in
the Biden White House We know it wasn't

(56:37):
Biden.
It was the staff Secretary's office according to
this report in theory They compiled delivered and
retrieved items and ensured the president's physical signature
ended up where it belongs in practice The
staff secretary near a Tandon saw the president

(56:57):
once every six to eight weeks and She
candidly described the heart of the process as
a black box Her team would send a
binder over something would happen.
The binder would return with a signature She
checked that there was a signature not whether
it was his hand or a machine that

(57:17):
isn't chain of custody You know, let me
say again She she said her role was
Extremely limited.
She didn't watch the review.
She didn't know who sat with the president
when he Quote decided she didn't track whether
the signature came from the man or the
machine.
She trusted that the protocol was working But

(57:41):
conceded that she wasn't present for most of
it That's like a notary who only sees
the envelope after the fact, right?
Who did touch the binder according to Ashley
Williams Oval Office ops basically whoever Some days
an op staffer other days a valet or

(58:01):
someone from the residence staff ferried it There
was no formal list of who was authorized
to carry the president's decision book And when
asked if there was a log an actual
record of everyone who touched it Williams confirmed
that there was no log.
So the country's most sensitive approvals commuted around
the complex by the honor system You know,

(58:24):
I mean Maybe you have a proper hall
pass, you know, it was Given to you
by somebody right if you got one, you
wouldn't make that up who would Even the
return trip wasn't there.
Sometimes the president handed it back directly Sometimes
Annie Tomasini carried it back sometimes who knows

(58:45):
William says she can't even speak to a
set protocol No set protocol that phrase should
be engraved all over the whole section.
No protocol Imagine a police courtroom chain of
custody for evidence Now imagine the opposite.
That's your executive action in the Biden White

(59:08):
House, right?
Now let's talk about the signature because in
you know, Washington the pen is not just
mightier than the sword It's mightier than the
subpoena Who insured the president personally hand-signed
the big ones answer?
No one you You can't get anyone under
oath who will say.

(59:29):
Yep.
I saw him sign that one the staff
secretary confirms her office didn't track anything, right
and And they didn't track hand versus auto
pen so the people whose job Was to
memorialize the president's decision didn't record how it
was memorialized You know if that was a

(59:52):
bank that would be akin to Not putting
a camera at the vault door So when
Sam, you know the teller who has to
go into the vault, you know Walks out
with his hand stuffed with $100 bills or
his pockets Nobody's gonna see it because there's
no no there who had the keys to

(01:00:13):
the auto pen Tandon says she oversaw Auto
pen use but did not operate it.
She would alert the executive clerk David Calba
and His staff would actually auto pen the
document.
She admits she didn't witness the machine in
use Until very late in her tenure So

(01:00:36):
what's that translate to the functional custody of
the signature device lived in a shop?
She did you know that she was in
charge of but didn't run, you know She
would pass it off to someone else and
the chief of staff Jeff Zients Testified he
did not know who physically auto Auto, oh,

(01:00:59):
you know auto pinned operated it Wow What
was the rule book?
There's a draft decision memo on auto pen
use in February 2021 that actually reads Fairly
sane like a sane set of guidelines.

(01:01:20):
It includes a bright line Recommendation says right
on it hand sign pardon letters.
Oh, that's sensible except 32 of 51 we're
not and Zients says he personally never saw
a breakdown prior to the prep for his
interview and Practic practice diverged from that anyway

(01:01:42):
Even Tandon concedes the president did not hand
sign executive orders So the memo that should
have been a guardrail was ignored unknown or
treated as nice to have So, you know
required to do anything what did day-to
-day operations really look like I mean I

(01:02:02):
don't know.
Let's picture a principal increasingly Stage managed he
was stage managed fewer events lighter schedule teleprompter
even at small fundraisers razors and Hollywood whispers
like Spielberg Katzenberg coaching delivery and language for

(01:02:24):
the State of the Union and beyond is
that illegal?
No, but it's not a great look when
mixed with paperwork that you can't tell who
decided what when Right.
I mean this this this place was a
mess according to this report Wow verbal authorizations

(01:02:45):
happened Even though they were cited as a
feature of you know Of What shouldn't happen
Ron Klain admits that there were times the
formal process was not followed Decisions were made
and later.
They were Memorialized the report's point is not

(01:03:06):
that no one ever wrote anything down It's
that the writing was often after the fact
an email based and sometimes not from the
person who supposedly Made the decision And that
crazy So, I don't know we're gonna this
is there's so much to get through here.

(01:03:27):
I'm gonna go to We already know well,
we have a lot of testimony on who
ran or didn't run this piece and Let's
see.
I want to get to some of the
The clemency sprint is what I call it

(01:03:50):
Let's talk about the final hours of the
White House You know, they're playing doordash with
the auto pen, right?
This is January 19 2025 a Meeting in
the West Wing a phone call to the
chief of staff at home an email authorizing
the auto pen For multiple pardons and voila

(01:04:12):
robot signatures on some of the most sensitive
acts a president can take The report calls
it a game of telephone tag After reading
this, you know, I call it, you know
malpractice myself.
This this is not how you get a
presidential pardon So here's how it worked according

(01:04:33):
to the the steps that have been outlined
in this report Step one the room where
it happened Senior aides Bruce Reed deputy chief
staff Ed Siskel White House counsel Steve Ruscetti
Annie Tomasini Anthony Bernal met in person with
President Biden on January 19 to discuss pardons

(01:04:57):
Notably not in the room chief of staff
Jeff Zients.
Okay.
Now there's the relay Who carried the decision
out of that room?
Zients assumed it was Reed or Siskel, but
he didn't know So when the chief of
staff has to assume who carried the president's

(01:05:17):
ideas out of the room you already lost
Reed and Siskel reportedly deliver the gist of
it all to Rosa Poe the assistant the
assistant of Zients And then so that's the
relay of information so first you have the
meeting then the relay third one is the

(01:05:38):
call Poe his assistant called Zients at home.
She gives him the telephone, you know game
Second-hand summary of what was decided in
the meeting that he didn't attend and neither
did she No contemporaneous decision memo is produced
nothing zip Step four there's an email without

(01:06:04):
calling back into the room without confirming with
anyone Who was actually present?
Zients says that Poe can send an email
from his account signed with his initials approving
the use of the auto pen to sign
multiple pardons once again the Authorization for a

(01:06:27):
robot to sign clemency warrants is a staff
sent email from the chief of staffs inbox
Okay, that's step four Step five the button
Poe hits send right the secretary's staff secretary's
office Conveyed to someone and that someone used

(01:06:48):
the auto pen to sign the warrants Zients
admits he doesn't know who actually operated the
auto pen neither does anybody else apparently In
any sane procedure who pressed a button isn't
a mystery.
It's supposed to be logged here.
It's just you know folklore It's like I
don't know Bigfoot We have we have the

(01:07:10):
auto pen We used to have Bigfoot now.
This is another another legend out there now
if you're hoping the paper trail gets better
Hold on the report says these January 19
pardons included the five Biden members Dr. Fauci
general Milley and members of the staff of
the January 6 committee.

(01:07:32):
That's not me making that up That's document
about about what it says in the auto
pen email And it wasn't just to who
it's to how the White House described the
broader clemency push that week on January 17
the White House boasted of commuting sentences for
Nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug

(01:07:55):
offenses a record-setting history-making headline then
a senior DOJ ethics attorney Bradley Weinsheimer Weighed
in with a memo that basically says stop
saying nonviolent because it's untrue Or at least
misleading he lists cases with violence in the

(01:08:17):
offense of conviction or violent histories The 19
flagged is highly problematic I mean, I'm sorry
of the 19 flagged is highly problematic 16
still got clemency his line That should have
frozen, you know That should be frozen I
have no idea if the president was aware
of these backgrounds the department was largely excluded

(01:08:38):
from the process That's not that you know,
that's not me saying that that's DOJ So
the constitutional pardon power is a personal power
of the president the president must decide The
reports remedy section says the quiet part out
loud to all of us Treat auto pen

(01:09:00):
executed actions as void where there's no contemporaneous
record of the president's own approval They recommend
the DOJ review Biden era executive actions on
that basis What does that mean in plain
English if you can't prove the boss said
yes The robot signature shouldn't be signature shouldn't

(01:09:21):
be able to rescue you Right.
This is never gonna happen by the way,
but it's it's people can now put it
on paper and go Well, I told him
they should do this, but nothing's gonna happen
just so you know Now let's go back
to January 19th because the effects are three
one No decision memo for the most sensitive
category of presidential act, right?

(01:09:44):
That is the headline, you know, there's no
decision memo No decision by the president the
telephone relay The chief of staff wasn't in
the meeting an aide relayed the decision another
eight emails the authorization Another somebody unknown signs
it that's proven, you know, that's rumor mill,

(01:10:05):
right?
The robot signature on clemency documents despite a
draft auto pen memo saying don't do that
hand signed But defenders will say auto pen
is lawful Verbal decisions are still decisions and
emails are a record sure But only if
you can show the president made the decision

(01:10:26):
Then and that that method matched the category
seriousness here we have an absence where the
record should be an email where a signature
should be and a machine where the man
should be You know, it gets worse friends
and neighbors the report surfaces a briefing memo

(01:10:48):
of February 23rd 2024 By White House Deputy
Associate Counsel Issa case him Suggesting the vice
president's approval had been sufficient to obtain the
president's approval for a particular clemency package Zaint
says he never saw it and blows it

(01:11:10):
off as a junior draft.
Maybe so but drafts don't draft themselves and
The sentence does exist in a healthy system
that line would would you know?
You know Hopefully supposed to be a guardrail,
but it isn't okay Paying attention to who
had a seat in pardon discussions is is

(01:11:33):
problematic to the report Flatly says that the
science testified that Hunter Biden was included in
meetings about pardons Including the meetings tied to
the January 19 slate of family members Fauci
Miller and all those other a million all
those others So the president's son is involved

(01:11:55):
in his own pardon discussion Chief of Staff
isn't even in the room and the authorization
is an email sent by an aide to
the chief of staff and blessed by an
auto pen Unfarging Believable the culture around this
sprint matters quite a bit to Same the

(01:12:16):
same section of the report says a presidency
was increasingly stage managed makeup walking step counts
teleprompters Hollywood coaches done delivery on language comms
machine and Note cards who nobody knows who
wrote and the press secretary can't identify It's
crazy Wow you can argue the president gave

(01:12:40):
an oral yes in the room and the
email was a Administerial relay and the auto
pen is just a mechanical extension if that's
true produced a record that ties the president's
decision to the specific warrants authorized the 2
,500 while we start with that Show the
decision memo show an initial show the date

(01:13:01):
and time the list Did he do 2
,500 all at once or did he review
each and every one?
I guarantee so the bottom line January 19
pipeline was meeting relay phone email auto pen
with no decision Is this is nuts?

(01:13:21):
nuts the apologists, you know Well, they're all
there it's the same people What's their alleged
wrongdoing Jeff Zients green lighting executive memo for?
Method for auto pen for clemency with no
decision This near a tendren who only participated,

(01:13:44):
you know once every six to eight weeks
Not criminal but institutional negligence failure to track
signatures That you know have legal force to
them David Calba executive clerk Hands on the
hardware, but nobody can prove who it was
his alleged wrongdoing was executing signatures in a

(01:14:06):
system where authority Authorization is unrecorded or email
based from somebody not even there Bruce Reed
Ed Siskel Steve Ruscetti Annie Tomasini Anthony Bernal
the room, right?
What is their wrongdoing?
opaque relay of presidential decisions without contemporaneous documentation

(01:14:28):
Ashley Williams not a criminal but again procedural
dereliction of duty system practically invited Unverifiable authors
and what about Kareem Jean-pierre and her
cheap fakes and these these things She sustained
the opacity regime around the president's health and

(01:14:50):
clemency decisions, you know publicly minimizing privately sourcing
talking points of unknown authorship and Reinforcing a
culture where optics was more important than Providence
Crazy, what about?
Dr. Kevin O'Connor?
his wrongdoing Withholding or failing to document cognition

(01:15:13):
and focused information in public facing health summaries
while the West Wing curated optics Anita Dunn
senior communications.
What did she do?
Again, not a crime but creating a culture
that prioritized packaging over Content so thoroughly the
proof of authorship You can't even find it
the Otto Penn fiasco wouldn't have happened without

(01:15:36):
her couldn't happened senior advisor Mike Donilon who
wanted to lighten the load right his testimony
about lightening the president's workload and limiting his
events again, not criminal just poor management Man,
I tell you what what wrongdoing looks like,

(01:15:58):
you know for all of them Approval with
no author custody with no log guidelines with
no governments Messaging with no medicine, you know,
no treatment clemency by email, you know is
crazy You know if you want a prosecutorial
bumper sticker ready.

(01:16:18):
Here's one for you.
You can get these printed up and say
Sam said They replaced the signer with the
signature.
How about that?
That's a punchline, but it's true Replace the
signer with the signature.
Well, why do you need a you know,
that's not theater.
That's a documentary remedy you know, I had

(01:16:39):
I remember this when I had several staff
that I authorized to write checks in my
my absence when you know my job and
I had a Signature stamp if you authorize
somebody to use your signature stamp it's just
like you sign it you've passed off your

(01:17:00):
Your Authority and it's probably a bad plan
and I did it but I did it
for you know small things You know said
no stamp over a certain amount of money,
you know 500 bucks something like that And
and I really I really wanted to do

(01:17:20):
more on What these witnesses all said I
don't think I can get through them all
The Let's let's get to just to the
bottom line on these because there's so much
to go through let's take the quote for
Specific quotes to each one of these Jeff
Zients September 18 2025 here's the question who

(01:17:44):
ran the auto pen His do you know
who ran the auto pen and he says
I do not Sorry to laugh about that
here is Neera Tanden staff secretary her interview
June 24 did Biden hand-signed all executive

(01:18:07):
orders she said He did not hand sign
all executive orders.
So he didn't why not Ashley Williams deputy
director of the Oval Office.
Here's her.
Here's her quote of the day When pressed
on what the process was Williams conceded she

(01:18:28):
couldn't speak to a formal process on decision
-making Ron Klain former chief of staff his
interview July 24th his quote.
What's a political?
Why?
Why would it be a political problem After

(01:18:49):
the debate when he said member he said
we're f'ed and he told investigators he
knew they had a big problem then And
they said why a big political problem.
He said because I thought the president's answer
answer had been halting Steve Ruscetti Where is
his little quote his quote The committee was

(01:19:15):
critiquing a culture that treated the auto pen
as a convenience Not a legally loaded document
and he said I don't think so age
was the consideration we Didn't want him to
have to sit down and sign all those
documents.
He's too damn old How do you like
that?

(01:19:36):
Okay, Mike Donilon senior advisor Let's see what
Normalizes remote approval, you know, how did that
get normalized and he said The best approach
he said the same thing is the other
guy the best approach would be to have
lightened Biden's schedule load Right, so that's what

(01:19:57):
they were doing it for Bruce Reed The
model of what you guys were doing Makes
the auto pen less of an exception and
more of a feature and he said at
times I sat with President Biden and went
through material with him.
He did the work and put in the

(01:20:18):
time at times.
I Love it Anita done her quote Operationally
You're using optics over process and she says
no you're asking me to mind read I
don't know.
I don't have anything I can say to
that Kim Jean Pierre on about her binder

(01:20:42):
she said nowhere in the book did it
exist and she was asked who wrote it
who put the who put the Communications in
her binder.
Well, that was nowhere in the book.
She's got to bite during that was that
she didn't know who wrote it No idea
Ian Sam's Let's see he talking about approvals

(01:21:03):
that greenlit auto pen actions without contemporaneous confirmation
from Biden and he said Asked if he
met the president to get the president's views
first.
He just said I did not So he
had no idea and he was the guy
running the auto pen sometimes Andrew Bates How

(01:21:27):
often did you meet the president and he
says as far as formal meeting not very
frequently.
Dr. O'Connor Given the health given that
health opacity Justified heightened scripting and thus more
off-site staff driven approvals his silence leaves
the auto pen regimes medical predicate question Unanswered

(01:21:49):
and his quote I Invoked the Fifth Amendment
and respectfully declined to answer that question Same
thing for Anthony Bernal same thing for Annie
Tomasini.
No, we aren't gonna answer that question Isn't
that?
loopiest of stuff so the bottom line in

(01:22:14):
plain English the big part What we can
name a specific night January 19 when the
auto pen was used to sign multiple pardons
often an email Or the guy said he
gave somebody the permission for a slate that
included family and high-level names with no

(01:22:35):
decision We can cite a credible account or
count.
I mean 32 of 51 of these Indicating
that the auto pen usage was common not
rare We can quote the staff secretary Biden
did not hand sign e o's the office
didn't track the method the operators sat in

(01:22:58):
the Executive clerk's shop the chief couldn't name
who ran the auto pen so for executive
orders and other actions Auto pen happened, but
nobody knows because there's no official roster We
can also add DOJ warning that the communication
messaging is untrue and and or at least

(01:23:22):
misleading Because the violence remember that and that
DOJ was largely excluded from the process evidence
of a rushed staff centric clemency process in
the same Window, so if you're keeping score
on all this the robots resume definitely includes
all the January 19 pardons Probably a big

(01:23:44):
chunk of those clemency warrants to 2,500
and some executive orders But the Biden White
House didn't keep a full ledger.
So we don't know in audit terms, you
know, that's not an accident That's a design
choice when the signature replaces the signer the
remedy should be Prove the president approved it

(01:24:05):
or redo it with a human hand and
now it's too late because the president doesn't
have And or that president doesn't have any
authority There are plenty of charges that people
are talking about clemency by email without a
memo chain of custody violations Guardrails existed but

(01:24:26):
were minored verbal approvals DOJ ethics flags memo
suggesting VP sign off could suggest for POTUS
apologists and Pleading the fifth and staff management
as a complete operating philosophy Crazy stuff.
What does it all mean?
So let's land this here plane Shall we

(01:24:48):
we've walked the paper vapor trail the robot
pen the telephone the cheap fake the Hollywood
coaches the fifth What does it mean for
law for politics for a country trying to
remember who's supposed to sign their own homework?
Start with the Constitution the presidency isn't a
brand it's a person Entrusted with powers that

(01:25:10):
don't travel well without their owner Clemency is
the purest example.
The document is not the act the president's
decision is the act if you replace the
decision With an email relay by third parties
who weren't even there and a signature with
a machine you haven't streamlined government you've Amputated

(01:25:32):
authorship That is why the reports blunt remedy
is to treat any of these auto pen
executed actions as Void this will never happen
But you know the point is the pen
is not the presidency the person is I
agree now We can layer on what actually
happened in the clemency sprint, you know, you've

(01:25:54):
you've heard all that's nonsense What does that
do to finality clemency is supposed to end
a story?
This process is open in a potential sequel.
Are these valid for every controversial grant in
that window?
Beneficiaries who want certainty now have a cloud
Opponents who want to fight have a ladder
even if no judge ever voids anything the

(01:26:17):
whiff of void ability Isn't gonna help that's
why grown-up governments make over documentation a
religion, you know The crazy stuff let's talk
culture because process doesn't you know Exist in
a vacuum the same shop that normalized verbal
now email later Approval and shrugged it not

(01:26:40):
knowing who ran the auto pen Normalized optics
is the operating system teleprompters lightning the schedule
Hollywood lines all of this and a doctor
whose public paperwork Carefully avoids the question the
public is asking they never asked it at
all You don't need a conspiracy theory when
these sorts of incentives are at work if

(01:27:02):
the priority is protecting his image Authentication isn't
nice to have You know, it would be
very nice to have right now, wouldn't it?
So I don't know What's the political meaning
of all this?
Too bad options for defenders option a well
This is normal It's normal to phone the

(01:27:24):
chief at home and authorize robot signing by
email from you know Somebody not in the
room by a person not in the room
to somebody who isn't the president And I
don't know maybe you should try to get
a restraining order that way.
Mr. Attorney It doesn't work that way This
is logistics if auto pen versus hand is

(01:27:45):
logistics then rule of law is a parking
ticket either way You've told that public authenticity
is Negotiable if it's after hours, right?
Crazy stuff.
What's this mean to the media?
Messaging, you know without provenance is how you
talk yourself into a scandal This is not
a scandal.

(01:28:05):
Nothing's ever gonna come of this.
It's just not gonna happen What should be
done?
I Don't know hand-signed clemency period in
the future name the operator log the method
Rebuild staff secretary as a witness kill verbal
then maybe by email publish an auto pen

(01:28:26):
policy How about that?
Audit the backlog, you know, what about all
that?
I'm not so sure.
I like this, you know how this is
going, but here's my verdict.
This wasn't drama about technology It was a
drama about accountability the auto pen didn't cause
the scandal it revealed it a Healthy White

(01:28:48):
House could use a robot pen and never
fall off a cliff Because the paperwork would
be bulletproof chain of custody method trackers Operator
known of who it is and above all
the president saying he documented it at the
moment It mattered what we just covered is
exactly the opposite a system that replaced the

(01:29:11):
signer with the signature and Hope no one
would notice or check the receipt we checked
and now, you know at international flavor where
the truth just tastes better I Plan to
see you tomorrow if you want to go
back and listen or you want to Check

(01:29:32):
out other Topics in my diatribes they exist
at international flavor Dot-com all of them
are out there For your listening pleasure and
JR does a good job of making sure
they're also available at damn radio dot-com
Forward slash podcast.
I very much appreciate you for being here

(01:29:53):
each and every one of you.
Have a good night damn radio