Read: Justice Department attorney Ed Martin’s email on Biden

Ed Martin speaks during a press conference in Washington, DC, on May 13, 2025. Craig Hudson For The Washington Post/Getty Images/File

On Monday, a day before the House Oversight Committee released a 93-page report outlining its conclusions from its monthslong investigation into former President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen to formalize clemency decisions, Justice Department official Ed Martin wrote an email to its chair.

Martin, the pardon attorney, told GOP Rep. James Comer that his “ongoing investigation” of the way that pardons and commutations were issued during Biden’s presidency had revealed “abuses” of the process by “political actors.” He wrote that his office would not defend any of the acts of clemency “without further investigation” – though there is no mechanism or prec