Anita Dunn, a senior Democratic campaign strategist and longtime political advisor to President Joe Biden, has become a central figure in a growing controversy over the use of an autopen to sign official presidential documents, while Biden was obviously suffering from dementia.
Dunn has ties to Alaska politics that stretch back nearly two decades.
While the claims of her directing the use of the autopen to sign official documents are still unverified, Dunn’s name is among those mentioned by Ed Martin as persons of interest in the unfolding scandal.
Martin, a pardon attorney and the lead attorney in the department’s weaponization task force, has been looking at the over 8,000 clemencies and pardons that President Biden granted, all through the stroke of an automatic pen — many issued at the end of his presidency.
Those pardons, if conduced by aides like Anita Dunn, might mean the actions were illegal and President Trump has asked for an investigation. The allegations have drawn attention to Dunn’s influential role in the Biden White House.
Dunn served as a senior advisor to Biden during two critical periods: from January to August 2021, and again from May 2022 to August 2024. She is being cited in conservative media outlets and online platforms as one of the senior staffers who allegedly oversaw or approved the use of an autopen to sign executive documents, including pardons, on behalf of the president.
A recent report from PJ Media named Dunn, along with former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer, as the “gatekeepers” who controlled presidential access and decisions related to document signings. Dunn is married to Bauer.
While Dunn’s current notoriety centers on the Biden administration, she has past connections to Alaska politics through her consulting work with former Democrat Gov. Tony Knowles.
Dunn advised Knowles during his political career, a relationship that brought her into Alaska’s political orbit in the early 2000s. Though not widely publicized, her strategic insight and campaign experience were considered valuable assets during that time.
Knowles served as Alaska’s governor from 1994 to 2002 and ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 2004. Dunn’s involvement with Knowles’ unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial campaign efforts helped build her reputation, even though he lost to Sarah Palin. Dunn later became a senior advisor to President Barack Obama.
Dunn was sometimes referred to as Biden’s “Closer,” for her role in closing sensitive deals in the White House. She left her White House post after Biden withdrew from the presidential race in July of 2024. Dunn moved over to the “Future Forward” super PAC supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign. In December of 2024, she appeared on a panel on CNN, during which she criticized the pardoning of Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
“In the middle of a Kash Patel weekend, kind of throwing this into the middle of it was exceptionally poor timing and … the argument is one that I think many observers are concerned about: A president who ran to restore the rule of law, who has upheld the rule of law, who has really defended the rule of law kind of saying, ‘Well, maybe not right now,’” she said.
Great journalism serving the public.
Treason?
We need accountability.
The penalty for treason in the United States, as defined by federal law, includes death, imprisonment for at least five years with a fine of at least $10,000, and the inability to hold any office under the United States.
It’s not treason but, if true, is probably indictable.
This kind of misuse of government authority is wrong.
She sounds like a straight shooter to me
She’s part of the DC swamp. Nothing will happen to her.
Worked to promote Tony Knowles: That’s all I need to know.