A growing body of evidence contradicts President Joe Biden’s previous claim that he had never discussed Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Joe Biden has publicly denied knowledge of his son’s business dealings, but Hunter Biden’s former friend Devon Archer is expected to testify that Hunter would often dial Joe Biden into his business telephone calls, indicating that he was aware of the dealings, according to a report by The New York Post.
Additionally, text messages show that Hunter Biden stated his father was present during business transactions, while a confidential FBI source alleged that Joe Biden received payments in relation to Hunter’s business dealings.
“We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president,” said Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that will hear Archer’s testimony, per the New York Post.
Archer and Hunter Biden co-founded Rosemont Realty, a real estate group, and both served on Burisma’s board at the same time.
Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company that was being investigated by the country’s prosecutor-general, hired Hunter Biden at a $50,000 monthly salary despite him having no experience in the energy industry while Joe Biden was Vice President in 2014.
Archer will testify about a telephone call on Dec. 4, 2015, in Dubai, where Hunter Biden was visiting to attend a Burisma Board of Directors meeting, per the Post.
Upon Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky’s request, Hunter Biden allegedly called Vice President Joe Biden introduced them, and asked for Joe Biden’s “support” for the company, according to the report about Archer’s testimony.
Telephone calls between Joe Biden and Burisma employees occurred at least a dozen times; Archer is expected to tell the committee, according to the Post.
Archer’s testimony comes after several reports that Joe Biden allegedly knew of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Burisma, which Republicans have argued indicate corruption by Joe Biden.
In 2016, as vice president, Joe Biden pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire the country’s prosecutor-general, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time.
A confidential source report prepared by the FBI revealed that Zlochevsky and Burisma’s chief financial officer, Vadim Pojarskii, had hired Hunter Biden primarily to leverage his father’s political standing to aid their business activities.
“Zlochevsky responded it would take them (investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e. illicit payments to Joe Biden),” the source reported in 2019, while also noting that Zlochevsky said “he didn’t want to pay the Bidens and he was ‘pushed to pay’ them,” according to the FBI report.
The payments were allegedly made so that Hunter Biden would “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” Zlochevsky told the confidential source. Burisma, at the time, was seeking to purchase a U.S. company to expand its business as well as stave off a corruption investigation by Shokin, which the source claimed Zlochevsky cited as the reason for the payments, per the FBI report.
At a hearing held by the Oversight Committee, two IRS employees who investigated Hunter Biden — Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler — testified that Hunter Biden’s business partners spoke of “10 held by H for the big guy,” referring to proceeds from a deal with CEFC China Energy. Ziegler testified that he understood the “big guy” to refer to Joe Biden.
Joe Biden also reportedly attended a meeting with CEFC, according to testimony to the Oversight Committee by Rob Walker, another former business partner of Hunter Biden.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” wrote Hunter Biden in a WhatsApp text message to a CEFC manager in 2017, pressuring him to approve a deal where Hunter Biden would receive “consulting fees,” per testimony released by the committee.
Joe Biden has repeatedly denied knowing of his son’s business dealings or receiving any money from them. It is a federal crime for a public official to receive money as an inducement or a quid pro quo for official action, and the U.S. Constitution lists “bribery” as a cause for impeachment.
Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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