WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch a formal investigation into whether former President Joe Biden’s administration conspired to conceal his mental state while in office. The move marks a significant escalation by the Trump administration as it seeks to scrutinize executive actions taken during Biden’s final years.
The directive, issued in coordination with the White House Counsel’s Office, tasks the Department of Justice with investigating the “circumstances surrounding Biden’s supposed execution of numerous executive actions” in the latter part of his presidency, including pardons, proclamations, and legislative decisions.
In a swift and direct response, former President Biden dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and baseless.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said in a statement released Friday. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
The White House emphasized that the probe would go beyond the already controversial review of Biden’s final pardons and would delve into broader concerns raised by what Trump officials described as “growing doubts” about Biden’s cognitive capabilities during his last two years in office.
Biden, pushing back forcefully, labeled the investigation a distraction from what he called “disastrous” Republican policy proposals.
“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push 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 in a statement shared with ABC News.
The clash adds to an increasingly combative political landscape as Trump’s second term continues and the 2026 midterms loom on the horizon. Critics of the investigation have already warned it may further inflame partisan tensions and politicize the Department of Justice.
