Hunter Biden involved in pardon talks toward end of father's term, source says as Zients testifies in autopen probe

Hunter Biden was involved in discussions about presidential pardons toward the end of his father’s White House term, a source familiar with Jeff Zients’ interview with House investigators told Fox News Digital on Thursday. Zients met with the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors for more than six hours, becoming the last former Biden official to appear in the committee’s probe into President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen. The inquiry, led by Republican Chair James Comer, also examines whether Biden’s top aides concealed signs of mental decline and whether autopen-signed actions, including clemency orders, were carried out with Biden’s full awareness.

Hunter attended a few meetings on the pardon topic with White House aides, but it was unclear how much influence he had or whether he sat in on talks about his own pardon. The elder Biden granted a “full and unconditional” pardon for Hunter in early December, just under two months before leaving office, a move Biden and his aides had previously denied. In a related move, Biden issued nearly 2,500 commutations on Jan. 17—the largest batch in U.S. history—and weeks earlier he issued pardons for several family members, including Hunter.

Zients, according to the testimony, acknowledged that the president’s public stumbles increased as he aged and that his memory for dates and names sometimes waned during the administration. A second source defending Zients said the chief of staff’s job was to coordinate a broad array of advisers so that the president could make well-considered decisions, and that “final decisions were made by the president and the president alone,” with Zients expressing pride in the administration’s accomplishments.

The House Oversight inquiry has focused on how autopen-operated signing sessions were used for executive orders and clemency actions and whether aides preserved or misrepresented information about Biden’s mental state. NBC News and other outlets had previously reported that Hunter attended White House meetings with Biden aides in the wake of a contentious June 2024 debate against former President Donald Trump. Comer’s panel has kept the focus on whether the president’s staff concealed signs of decline or whether the autopen process affected the legal status of the acts.

As the probe continues to unfold, lawmakers are seeking more details about how pardons and other clemency actions were processed and whether any information about Biden’s mental state was withheld from the public or Congress. The committee has previously scrutinized public statements about the autopen practice and the scope of involvement by top White House aides in signing or approving executive actions during Biden’s term.

Comer’s investigation has drawn renewed attention to the broader question of how presidents use autopens and whether such practices affect the legitimacy and transparency of executive actions. The committee has also referenced past reporting that Hunter sat in on White House discussions in the months after Biden’s June 2024 debate performance, though officials have not disclosed the extent of Hunter’s influence on policy or personnel decisions. The panel’s questions are part of a wider GOP effort to probe the end-of-term clemency activity and the administration’s handling of internal communications on sensitive matters.