I didn't think much of the whole autopen scandal a while back, but if this is true then that changes things. An aide directing autopen signatures without knowing whether the order actually came from the president seems like a pretty big fucking deal.

If there's a chain of delegation from the president down to the person using the autopen to sign stuff, but nobody in that chain knows if the president gave the order, literally anyone in that chain could effectively create presidential authority at a will.