By Jake Tapper, CNN

(CNN) — 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 precedent to reverse a pardon issued by a past president.

CNN obtained a copy of the email. Here it is in full.

Dear Chairman Comer,

Good to talk to your staff today about this very important matter.

As I mentioned on the phone, since we met in your office last June, I have been working on understanding the circumstances and facts that surround the unprecedented pardons and commutations of the President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration.

My ongoing investigation has revealed abuses of the pardon and commutation process by political actors in the Biden Administration. The use of AutoPen at the direction of staft and perhaps others is troubling.

As an attorney, I am very aware that the power of the pardon rests with the President and that I am called to act on his behalf and within his power. I am not able in any way to act on my own behalf, and to bind him to any commutation or pardon. No other staffer may do so.

To be clear: All Executive power is vested in a duly elected and President. The highest functions of that Office-including the pardon power-are non-delegable. This is at once profound and common sense—it provides a clear line of democratic accountability between decisions and consequences.

What I am seeing in my investigation of the Biden pardons is disturbing. Not only were there regularities but questions of confidence in the system and competence of the participants.

The Constitution only works if the President is competent. The 25th Amendment was adopted after historical failures such as President Woodrow Wilson’s incapacity and the shock of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination to ensure our Nation never had an incompetent Chief Executive again.

That Amendment ultimately relies upon those it charged with monitoring the competency of the President doing that right thing and upholding their oaths. The Biden Administration broke this system down, when they hid the truth of the president’s health from the American people

By accounts and now public admissions, President Biden did not appear competent, and all available evidence indicates that those charged under the 25th Amendment did not protect the Country, because the individuals charged with executing the Amendment’s intent failed. Instead, they seem to have protected themselves and President Biden by covering up President Biden’s incapacity. The abuses carried in connection with my office provide further evidence on this front, which certainly suggest that bad actors exploited President Biden’s infirmary to secure their own agenda by, with, and through various means including the AutoPen.

As the Pardon Attorney, I can tell you unequivocally that my Office cannot support the validity and ongoing legal effect of pardons and commutations issued during the Biden Administration without further examination.

Their validity must be fully examined in light of what we now know - and I suspect ultimately by a Court with a presentation of the evidence you and others have gathered.

In August, I released an internal email in my possession from former Deputy Attorney General Brad Weinsheimer that is emblematic of the problems in the former administration’s commutation process. The e-mail was sent the Saturday morning after the White House announced sweeping commutations of thousands of so-called “non-violent” felons the day prior. Weinsheimer correctly noted that the list of individuals whose sentences were supposedly commuted contained seriously violent offenders. He requested clarification directly from the President as to the clear conflict between the White House’s statements and the names put forward as somehow fitting into the category of the commutation.

In a New York Times article a month prior to my release of that particular e-mail, former President Biden disclosed that “he did not individually approve each name for categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people.” This alone seems to raise serious questions of whether those commutations are invalid. After all, only the President has the power to issue pardons or commutations. Setting aside other evidence regarding former President Biden’s incapacity, his statement seems an admission that the commutations to which Mr. Weinsheimer took issue were not valid commutations in the first place, notwithstanding their other defects.

Other defects apply to the pardon process for several other high-profile pardons towards the end of the Biden Administration. My office cannot support the validity of AutoPen pardons for individuals such as Anthony Fauci, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley, and many more without further examination and fact-finding. In my tenure here, I have not seen any evidence supporting the theory that President Biden was personally aware and authorized these AutoPen’d pardons.

If these pardons or commutations are challenged in any way, I recognize serious difficulties in defending them.

I greatly appreciate the work of Congress and your Committee in particular in conducting vigorous oversight into AutoPen abuses and its connections to pardons and commutations.

While it is unfortunate that such work is necessary, Americans now have a fuller accounting of the constitutional breakdown in their system of government. It is that broken trust that I as Pardon Attorney am committed to restoring. That work must involve accountability for official actions in violation of law. It will also involve recommitting my office to ensure that proper procedures are in place to ensure that only constitutional actions are effectuated through my office. No longer will we tolerate government by AutoPen.

Please let this letter serve as official recognition that I, as Pardon Attorney, recognize the grave abuses in the pardon and commutation process of the last Administration. My office stands ready to work with you to ensure these abuses never occur again. Sorry for this long email but I believe my follow up to our June meeting was deserved and late - for you so apologize.

All the best.

Ed Martin

U.S. Pardon Attorney

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