A longtime aide of former President Joe Biden recently revealed that he had a huge payday coming should Biden have won the 2024 presidential election. 

The aide is Michael Donilon, and, according to Fox News, Donilon made this revelation during testimony that he recently gave to Congress.

This is all part of the House Oversight Committee's ongoing investigation of the Biden autopen scandal. We still do not have a clear answer about exactly who was signing off on those documents during Biden's tenure.

Longtime Biden aide Mike Donilon appears for House Oversight’s autopen inquiry pic.twitter.com/2NANfeApyb

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 31, 2025

$8 million reasons to...

Donilon, according to Fox, was there for Biden's full term, the full four years. He was Biden's top strategist for both the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

However, the outlet adds that "their relationship goes back decades," back to 1981 when Donilon first worked for then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE).

Fox reports:

Donilon told investigators he was paid $4 million to work on Biden's 2024 campaign, the source said. That information was reported by Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper in their book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again."

So he was making $4 million, but the outlet goes on to report that Donilon would have made an additional $4 million had Biden won in 2024, which would have brought his take-home up to $8 million.

The big question, of course, is whether Donilon and others essentially tried to get Biden over the finish - despite knowing about his physical and mental decline - just to get their payday.

Background

Donilon is one of a number of former Biden administration officials who are providing testimony to Congress, which is trying to get to the bottom of the autopen controversy.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Multiple presidents have been known to utilize an autopen during their time in the White House, usually to sign presidential letters and messages. However, the tool was used during Biden's waning hours in office to sign a series of pardons and clemency actions, which have been met with skepticism during President Donald Trump's administration.

The key question is whether Biden was the one signing off on things, or whether it was some unelected official.

Biden continues to insist that he did indeed sign off on things, but this has been met with skepticism.

In addition to Congress, the Trump White House is also investigating the situation, with the help of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).