The House Oversight Committee released a transcript Thursday of its meeting with Devon Archer, a long-time Hunter Biden associate who alleges President Joe Biden joined phone conversations with Hunter’s business associates several times.
The Archer testimony made headlines earlier this week, and now the transcript gives more details into what new evidence the committee has in its investigation.
Among the revelations is a statement from Archer that Hunter Biden used speaker phone calls with his father, the president, to build the Biden family “brand,” which he was able to monetize.
Archer said that then-Vice President Biden knew that Hunter’s business associates were also on the call when Hunter Biden put him on speaker phone.
As The Center Square previously reported, Archer, who currently faces prison time for fraud, went to school at Yale with Hunter Biden and worked with him for 10 years.
Archer also has connections to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, the same company that Hunter Biden served on the board, which allegedly paid millions of dollars to the Biden family and associates as part of an alleged “bribery scheme.”
Archer’s testimony, which came during a four-hour interview behind closed doors Monday, directly contradicts the president’s repeated claims that he was not involved in the overseas dealings.
“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,” House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said. “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.”
Democrats challenged Republicans’ characterization of Archer’s interview and urged for the release of the transcript earlier this week.
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., told the Congressional Integrity Project after the interview this week that the Committee did not find “…a shred of evidence of a single conflict of interest of President Biden ever doing anything in connection or in relation to Hunter Biden’s business ventures.”
The House Oversight Committee released a timeline of key events from Archer’s testimony laying out some of the most serious allegations.
From the Committee:
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.
