After several false starts, Hunter Biden’s closest business partner and probably also his closest friend, Devon Archer, testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a closed-door hearing on July 31. The question on everyone’s lips for some time now has been how much knowledge of the younger Biden’s efforts to profit from the family name did Joe Biden have? The latter has repeatedly asserted that he never discussed business with his son, but that’s not really the point. According to the GOP committee members, Hunter was, indeed, influence-peddling for profit. If Joe Biden was aware of that while he served as vice president – and did not put a stop to it, which he didn’t – then he would be guilty of corruption.
While corruption itself is not a specifically defined crime, it should be enough to render one unfit for public office. A corrupt senior government official is vulnerable to bribery and blackmail, meaning he or she is a threat to America’s interests and national security. House Republicans claim to have compelling evidence that both Hunter and Joe Biden may have taken a bribe from Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company that once appointed both Hunter and Devon Archer to its board of directors.
Devon Archer Sets the Record Straight?
According to GOP lawmakers, Archer confirmed that Hunter Biden dialed his father into conference calls with prospective business associates on multiple occasions while he was in the White House during the Obama years. Did Joe Biden actively discuss business with these people, or did he merely have “casual conversation” and trade “niceties about the weather,” as Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has argued? That could well be irrelevant. The very fact that he spoke with them indicates that he was well aware they were people with whom his son was trying to do business. What was the nature of that business? Joe Biden was the "brand" Hunter promoted – a word reportedly used by Devon Archer himself. Thus, even the most inconsequential chatter exchanged between Joe Biden and the businessmen with whom Hunter was engaging constituted an involvement with the family business. Simply being able to say “I have personal access to the vice president of the United States” is worth a great deal. Archer apparently told the committee as much, saying Joe Biden "was put on the phone to sell 'the brand.’"
According to Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Devon Archer confirmed that Joe Biden "lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved." The former VP may or may not have been directly involved in Hunter’s business activities, but given the evidence and Archer’s testimony, it is becoming more difficult to believe that Joe Biden knew nothing about what his son was doing.
Hunter and Joe Biden (Photo by Teresa Kroeger/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
As for the Burisma scandal, GOP committee members revealed that Devon Archer described how the company pushed the Bidens to kill the investigation targeting it. "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 DC regarding the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin," the committee explained. Archer told lawmakers that Hunter Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski put in a call to Washington. Just days later, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine, where he threatened to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees if Shokin was not fired. Joe Biden is on record recounting that confrontation with Ukrainian officials and his threat – of which he appeared quite proud. Shokin was - according to Mr. Biden - fired within hours.
A trusted FBI source had previously reported that a Burisma executive claimed the company also paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each to seal the deal and ensure that Shokin’s investigation was quashed.
While they continue to downplay the Biden family financial scandals, House Democrats appear to be finding it increasingly difficult to defend Joe Biden, who hopes to secure a second White House term in 2024. The testimony from Devon Archer, a central figure in the alleged pay-to-play scheme, may have put the final nail in the coffin of the senior Biden’s efforts to distance himself from Hunter’s shady deals. Just a few weeks ago, Joe Biden asserted that no member of his family had received money from the Chinese, but Hunter himself recently admitted that he was paid more than $600,000 by at least one Chinese firm. Following the money is how Republican investigators will incriminate Joe Biden and his son – or not, if there is no there there. But, as it stands, the proverbial walls seem to be closing in.
