Since the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden has insisted that he was not involved in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
But a transcript of former Hunter business partner Devon Archer’s closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday suggests otherwise.
Archer confirmed that Joe Biden attended at least two dinners with Hunter’s business associates, including one in April 2015 at which Vadym Pozharsky, an executive with the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, was present.
The discussion is on Page 45 of the transcript.
Archer later stated that the elder Biden stayed for the meal and that there was some talk about the United Nations World Food Programme. He explained that Hunter was on the board of the World Food Program USA at the time.
Devon Archer reveals then-VP Joe Biden DID ATTEND dinners with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates who wired money to Biden associated LLCs. pic.twitter.com/tqTpa4qwv2
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 3, 2023
Archer recounted that in December of that year, he and Hunter traveled to Dubai to participate in a Burisma board meeting. Pozharsky and Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky were also in attendance.
At one of the meetings, Archer said the Burisma executives asked Hunter to “call D.C.” in relation to the heat they were feeling from Ukrainian prosecutors.
“They requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,” Archer said. “You know, government pressure from Ukrainian government investigations into Mykola.”
Burisma executives requested Hunter Biden to get “help from D.C.” to address “government pressure” and were aware Hunter had a “very powerful name.” pic.twitter.com/RPRntDGNMP
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 3, 2023
Fox News reported that “on Nov. 2, 2015, just weeks before the board meeting in Dubai, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter Biden, emphasizing that the ‘ultimate purpose’ of the agreement to have Hunter on the board was to shut down ‘any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine,’ referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay.”
“The request is like, ‘Can D.C. help?’” Archer recalled, adding that the Burisma executives did not specifically ask Hunter to get his father involved. “It was always this amorphous, ‘Can we get help in D.C.?’”
Hunter did make a call to D.C. from Dubai, according to Archer. However, he was not privy to what was said.
“I was left out of these, you know, black box D.C. types of conversations,” Archer explained.
But five days after the phone call, then-Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech in Ukraine, saying, “The office of the general prosecutor desperately needs reform.”
That office was led by Viktor Shokin, who was investigating potential corruption at Burisma at the time.
Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine while Hunter served on Burisma’s board, earning $1 million per year.
The elder Biden eventually demanded then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko fire Shokin or forfeit $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.
At a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in January 2018, Joe Biden spoke proudly about what transpired.
“I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the $1 billion. … I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he recalled telling Poroshenko.
“Well, son of a b****, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” he added.
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers will find offensive.
MUST WATCH: Here’s Joe Biden in 2018 bragging about using his power to hold up $1 BILLION in U.S. loans unless Ukraine fired the prosecutor investigating Burisma – a corrupt Ukrainian oil company paying his son $50,000 a month.
Biden needs to explain his conflict of interest! pic.twitter.com/bDhaKjFNZN
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 25, 2019
Fox reported, “Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption and say that his firing was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.”
Archer testified Monday that he was told by “various [members] of the D.C. team that the firing of Shokin was bad for Burisma because he was under control.”
Archer was also asked about the accusation made by a confidential FBI source in 2020 that Joe and Hunter Biden each received a $5 million bribe from Zlochevsky to make Shokin’s investigation go away.
Archer responded that he was not aware of any $5 million payments made to the Bidens, saying Zlochevsky may have been bragging to the source to send a signal that he had special access to the then-vice president.
