After revelations during Hunter Biden’s former BFF Devon Archer’s transcribed interview Monday afternoon that Hunter regularly put Joe Biden on the phone with his business associates to sell them on “the brand,” House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) issued a statement asking why Joe Biden lied to the American people about his family’s business dealings.
President Biden and his surrogates have asserted on numerous occasions that he had nothing to do with Hunter Biden’s business dealings and further, that he never even spoke to Hunter about them. According to takeaways from Archer’s testimony posted by the House Oversight Committee, “then-Vice President Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family.’”
Archer’s testimony covers business relationships with three foreigners who were either currently or formerly tied to their respective governments in Ukraine, Russia, and China, and what they received from their relationship with the Biden Bribery Business and swing the door to charges for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) against Hunter wide open.
Comer’s full statement reads:
“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family. When Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States, he joined Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business associates in person or by speakerphone over 20 times. When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai.
“Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question what else he is hiding from the American people. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will continue to follow the Bidens’ money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”
The takeaways posted by Oversight closely track what Chad Pergram outlined (and which we covered here) but add a few details.
- Devon Archer testified that the value of adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board was “the brand” and confirmed that then-Vice President Joe Biden was “the brand.”
- Archer admitted that “Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it.” He believed that Hunter Biden being on the board and the Biden brand contributed to Burisma’s longevity. People would have been intimidated to mess with Burisma legally because of the Biden brand.
- In December 2015, Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and Vadym Pozharski, an executive of Burisma, placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from D.C. regarding the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption. Hunter Biden, along with Zlochevsky and Pozharski, “called D.C.” to discuss the matter. Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski stepped away to make the call. This raises concerns that Hunter Biden was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
- Devon Archer testified that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the speakerphone during business meetings over 20 times. Archer testified that Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.” These phone calls include a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR.
- Archer acknowledged that then-Vice President Biden had coffee with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR, in Beijing. Then-Vice President Biden even wrote a letter of recommendation for college for Li’s daughter.
- Archer confirmed Joe Biden was referred to as “my guy” by Hunter Biden.
- In spring of 2014, then-Vice President Biden attended a business dinner with his son, Hunter, and his associates at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, attended the dinner. Notably, the Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina.
Federal prosecutors announced last week that Hunter Biden’s proposed plea agreement does not cover FARA violations. Attorneys in that case are scheduled to file briefs related to the propriety of both the plea and diversion agreements by September 1, and it was announced Monday afternoon that the House Judiciary Committee has opened an inquiry into how Hunter’s sweetheart plea deal came about.
