Devon Archer, the former business partner of Hunter Biden who is set to start a yearlong prison sentence for conspiring to defraud a Native American tribe in a case unrelated to his work with Mr Biden, spent several hours on Monday giving evidence in a closed-door interview with members of the House Oversight Committee.
Republicans on the powerful House panel have for months been hoping that Archer, who worked with Hunter Biden on several foreign ventures in the 2010s, would testify that his former partner’s father, President Joe Biden, personally spoke to several of his son’s business associates during the period when he served as Vice President in the Obama administration.
The elder Mr Biden has repeatedly denied having played any role in his son’s business ventures and has said he never discussed any of them with his son.
GOP figures hope Archer’s testimony will give them sufficient cause to fulfill former president Donald Trump’s demand that House Republicans open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden to retaliate for the two impeachment trials Mr Trump faced during his presidency.
The disgraced businessman, who in 2018 was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud, reportedly told lawmakers that Hunter Biden had a habit of putting his famous father on speakerphone during meetings with potential business associates.
But one Democratic member of the panel, Representative Daniel Goldman of New York, told reporters following the interview that Archer adamantly denied that the then-president did more than exchange pleasantries.
“The witness was very consistent that none of those conversations had anything to do with any business dealings or transactions,” he said.
Mr Goldman also said Archer testified that the then-vice president only had “casual conversations” when he was put on speakerphone during his son’s meetings. He added that he would be “shocked” if any of the payments Republicans now claim went to Hunter Biden and his father from a Ukrainian gas executive actually happened, and called on Oversight Committee chair James Comer to release the actual transcript of the interview instead of going on television to lie about what took place.
Even without testimony indicating that the president ever discussed whatever business his son had with the people he was on speakerphone with, Republicans appeared outraged that the then-vice president had the temerity to answer phone calls from his son.
Right-wing radio host Larry O’Connor echoed a common line among GOP elected officials and media figures by writing on X (the platform formerly called Twitter) that the vague pleasantries from the vice-president were “the deliverable”.
“It literally doesn’t matter what was discussed. Showing that he could get the Vice President of the United States on the phone was all Hunter had to show his clients to seal the deal. He was selling ACCESS not policy. Getting The Big Guy to pick up the phone demonstrated his ability to deliver that access,” he said, adding later: “Case closed. Impeach”.
Oversight committee member Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Representative, said on Fox News late Monday that the incidents described by Archer show the president is “corrupt” because he was unaware of who was in the room with his son when he answered phone calls from his son.
“You don’t even know who is on the other end of the speaker phone. How corrupt is that? How is that not influence pedaling and how is that not compromising the national security?” he said.
But Mr Goldman, the New York congressman, made clear that Archer’s testimony only indicated that Hunter Biden merely “promoted the illusion” of influence on or access to his father, but delivered no such access or influence.
“What was clear in the testimony yesterday is that there were many instances where Hunter Biden tried to get, quote, “credit” for something that his father did completely independent. And the key here is that they never discussed business. They said, hello. It was, you know, greetings, niceties, salutations, small talk. It was never involved with business. And even Devin Archer said that Joe Biden has no business experience, wouldn’t have known what Hunter was doing and was not interested nor ever discussed it. And so, not only did – was there no evidence connecting Joe Biden. But the allegations that Joe Biden lied are wrong as well. He didn’t discuss Hunter’s business dealings,” he said.
Archer’s testimony comes after House Republicans and associated right-wing media figures spent last weekend falsely accusing the Biden administration of attempting to intimidate the convicted fraudster.
After the Supreme Court affirmed his 2018 conviction, the Justice Department sent Archer a letter informing him that he should prepare to report to prison to serve his year-and-a-day sentence.
But Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, denied that any political motivations appeared to be in play.
“We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice’s weekend request to have Mr Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee,” he said in a statement. “To be clear, Mr Archer does not agree with that speculation”.
In a separate letter filed on the public docket for Archer’s criminal case, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damien Williams said the government had never asked Archer to surrender before his testimony on Monday.
“As the Court knows, to surrender and commence his sentence of imprisonment, the defendant first must be designated to a federal facility by the Bureau of Prisons – a process that can take several weeks or months after the Court sets a surrender date,” he said.
“Nonetheless, for the avoidance of all doubt, the Government requests that any surrender date, should the Court order one, be scheduled to occur after the defendant’s Congressional testimony is completed”.
