polygraph (12. 313)

In an angry late-night post to his social networking platform, Trump said that Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for individuals associated with the investigation of the January Sixth Capitol insurrection were “hereby declared VOID, VACANT AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OF EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.” Unclear if the clemency grants were not signed by hand in the first place, the claim is baseless, because if so, the exercise of this broad and magisterial presidential power requires no signature, just that the recipients accept the pardon—Trump then pivoting his accusation that Biden’s diminished mental capacity meant he was unaware that his endorsement was being mimeographed. The tool has been used by many in high office to personalise correspondence as well as by institutes of higher learning to confer diplomas and certificates and at least once—that we know of—to sign legislation, Obama telegraphing his approval of the extension of the Patriot Act whilst in France in 2011. And while bills have been flown around the world for the executive signature in order to suppress any doubt of legality, still the language of the constitution stipulates that legislation is to be accepted or returned, vetoed without outlining how it is recorded. Patented under the title trademark, Thomas Jefferson was an early-adopter of this prototype, allowing two pens to move simultaneously and doubling efficiency. The pseudo-scientific technique of lie-detection shares the name because of its range of physiological indicators.