In the final hours of his presidency, it wasn’t Joe Biden who signed off on his last batch of pardons—it was someone Americans never elected: his former COVID czar and chief of staff, Jeff Zients.
On the night of January 19, 2025—Biden’s last full day in office—White House aides rushed to prepare the final list of presidential pardons and commutations. At 10:03 p.m., a summary of the “decisions” was circulated internally. By 10:31 p.m., Zients replied to staff with a short but consequential message:
“I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons.”
And with that, the autopen—a mechanical device that signs documents with the president’s signature—was activated. But not by Biden.
According to reporting from The New York Times, Zients was the one who gave the green light, not the president himself. In fact, the Times says that Rachel Feldman, who operated the autopen, received the list even before Zients formally approved it—suggesting the list may have been prepped without Biden’s direct review at all.
Among the names on that list? Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Yes, the same Dr. Fauci who oversaw America’s COVID response—a response critics say crushed small businesses, disrupted education, and divided the country. Zients, who had no background in public health, was Biden’s handpicked COVID strategy coordinator. He and Fauci worked closely throughout the administration’s pandemic response.
The pardon issued for Fauci was sweeping. It protected him from “any offenses he may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon.” That means nearly a decade of potential accountability—wiped away.
And, according to the Times, this was not a decision made by President Biden.
Zients, a corporate executive with a background in private health care companies—some of which have been tied to Medicare fraud settlements—appears to have wielded the pardon pen in Biden’s final hours. He’s also a former Facebook board member and co-founder of a law firm reportedly connected to surprise medical billing practices.
Despite his lack of public health credentials, Zients was a central figure in the Biden administration’s pandemic policy. ABC News once praised him as “the right guy for the job,” citing his reputation as a results-driven operator. But that same relentless execution style may have extended far beyond policy—into the realm of presidential power.
The implications are serious: Fauci’s pardon didn’t come from Biden’s own hand—and maybe not even his full awareness.
Instead, in the waning hours of a presidency marred by cognitive decline, it was a behind-the-scenes technocrat who finalized some of the most consequential legal immunities in modern history.
Fauci walked away with full protection. Thousands of others received clemency, all apparently rubber-stamped by someone the American public never voted for.
As one former White House aide put it: Jeff Zients didn’t just board a sinking ship—he might have taken the wheel just before it went under.