Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) co-chaired a session titled “Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution.” The hearing focused on alleged crimes by Joe Biden’s Cabinet members and senior aides in concealing the former President’s cognitive decline while in office.
Senator Cornyn questioned Theodore Wold, Visiting Fellow for Law and Technology Policy at the Heritage Foundation, about potential criminal activities related to this issue. Discussing the use of an autopen by President Biden, Cornyn stated: “When talking about the autopen, there are really two issues: One is the mechanical use of an autopen in lieu of an actual signature by the President, but it seems to me that we’re confronted with the more important, or more fundamental issues is, did the President know that the autopen was being used for that purpose?” He added that it concerns “the capacity of the President of the United States to understand what he was supposed to be doing.”
On potential crimes committed during what he termed as a cover-up, Cornyn noted: “Some have suggested that there may be potential crimes committed by members of the Cabinet for failing to act, basically suborning perjury, forging government documents, impersonating a Federal officer, making false statements, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of justice, wire or mail fraud – those are all statutes, criminal statutes, that are on the books.”
Cornyn further asked if these statutes might apply to circumstances surrounding Biden’s presidency and his incapacity. In response, Wold remarked on the constitutional implications: “I will say, the 25th Amendment, it’s a modern contrivance but it still is consistent with American constitutional tradition… And the idea that members of the Cabinet would go to lengths avoiding responsibility – if that’s not a constitutional scandal honestly I don’t know what would constitute such.”
Wold acknowledged there could be potential crimes involved but emphasized procedural integrity underlining: “The 25th Amendment can only function in its procedural mechanisms if people are actually willing to call a spade a spade.”
