June 4 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an investigation into former President Joe Biden's cognitive state, alleging that White House aides covered up the ex-leader's mental decline and "abused the power" of the nation's highest office.
Trump signed an executive order directing his counsel, in consultation with Attorney General Pam Bondi, to probe whether Biden's aides attempted to cover up information about his health.
In a memorandum announcing the order, Trump said the investigation will determine "whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president.
Trump takes issue with Biden's apparent use of an autopen to sign executive actions, including dozens of pardons, during his time as president. Trump said Biden's use of the machine, which was first patented in 1803, shows proof of a cognitive decline.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said that, "With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!"
There's been a long history of presidents using an autopen to sign the many documents that come across their desks each day, beginning with the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. According to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, which collects historical documents, Presidents Gerald Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama used the device, some to sign the many requests for autographs and letters, others to sign important documents and orders.
In 2005, then-President George W. Bush asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel whether it was constitutional for him to sign official documents using the autopen. The office concluded that "the president need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law."
Trump said he has used the autopen but not for important documents.
In addition to investigating Biden's use of the autopen, Trump's order directs counsel to determine whether aides falsely deemed as fake videos purporting to show a decline in former president's cognition.
The announcement of Trump's order came hours after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., demanded that five former senior Biden administration senior aides appear for transcribed interviews.
Comer said in a statement he is expanding a probe into what he asserted was a coverup about Biden's alleged mental decline.
"The coverup of President Biden's mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation's history," Comer said in a statement. "These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden's condition and operations within the Biden White House. They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden's cognitive state and who was calling the shots."
Comer sent letters demanding testimony to former Chief of Staff Ronald Klain, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Bruce Reed, former Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, and former senior advisers Michael Donilon and Anita Dunn.
Comer told Klain in a letter, "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the role of former senior White House officials in possibly usurping authority from former President Joe Biden and the ramifications of a White House staff intent on hiding his rapidly worsening mental and physical faculties."
Comer added, "If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive's condition -- or to perform his duties -- Congress may need to consider a legislative response."
Comer referenced the book Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that claims Biden officials worked to cover up a "precipitous decline" in Biden's physical and mental health when he was in office.
He alleged in a Wednesday press release that, "The Biden White House obstructed the Committee's investigation and refused to make the aides available for depositions or interviews."
