Introduction to The Autopen Scandal | When a Machine Signs for the President and Nobody Knows Who Gave the Orders

Congressional investigators close in on Biden's inner circle as former aides lawyer up and refuse to answer basic questions about who controlled the autopen during the president's cognitive decline

What if a machine was signing for the President of the United States, and no one knew who was giving the orders?

During a recent visit to Monticello, I found myself captivated by a peculiar device sitting on Thomas Jefferson's desk: a polygraph. Not the lie detector you're thinking of, but an contraption that allowed Jefferson to create perfect copies of his letters as he wrote them. Jefferson, ever the gadget enthusiast, acquired his first polygraph in 1804 and reportedly called it "the finest invention of the present age." The prolific writer used two-pen models, keeping one at Monticello and another at the White House, ensuring every important document was duplicated.

Jefferson could never have imagined that centuries later, a far more sophisticated descendant of his beloved copying device would sit at the center of what may become the biggest presidential scandal of our lifetime.