US President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into his predecessor Joe Biden’s actions in office, accusing the former leader’s aides of hiding his “cognitive decline” from the public.
In an executive order issued on Wednesday, Trump said the probe would assess whether “certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president”.
The memo suggested, without providing evidence, that the unnamed officials may have taken advantage of Biden through the use of an autopen, the process by which presidents can give their approval to a document without physically signing it.
In 2005, the US Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said the autopen system — which Trump has himself used for routine correspondence — was a legitimate way for a president to validate official documents.
The Trump administration’s probe, which will be led by US Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington, comes as an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of some of Biden’s executive actions and pardons.
Responding to Trump’s claims, Biden, who recently announced that he is suffering from prostate cancer, said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
The former president added that his successor wanted to use his latest executive order as a “distraction” tactic.
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Biden said.
Trump’s investigation of the Biden administration marks an escalation in his targeting of political opponents.
As part of their claims about Biden’s presidency, Trump and his allies have sought to capitalise on a comment made in the book Original Sin by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.
“Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board,” the pair wrote.
Those close to Biden have hit out at the book, with his granddaughter Naomi describing it as “political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class”.
Biden withdrew from last year’s presidential race after a disastrous debate with Trump, which led to increased scrutiny about his mental acuity.
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