Fox News Digital received Hunter Biden’s former associate Devon Archer’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
Devon served on the Burisma board with Hunter.
However, after reading through it, the transcript is a win for Republicans and Democrats. Neither one will talk about the points that don’t mesh with their stories.
This is my personal opinion. Archer creeped me out because he reminds me so much of Hunter. Just something about him. He doesn’t give off the same trustworthy vibe as other witnesses have.
My advice is to take everything he says with a grain of salt.
I’ll tell you this much, though. It appears Hunter kept Joe far enough away as not to cause problems for the family at least in front of other people:
Q But, in fact, Hunter Biden — Joe Biden never helped out Joe Biden’s — sorry. Scratch that. In fact, Hunter Biden never asked his father to take official actions on behalf of his business partners?A He did not. He did not ask him — to my knowledge, I never saw him say, do anything for any particular business.Q And you’re not aware of Joe Biden ever doing anything to help his son’s business partners?A No. I think that the calls were — that’s what it was. They were calls to talk about the weather, and that was signal enough to be powerful.Q So this, again, was about projecting this illusion of access to his father. Is that right?A Correct.
Mr. Schwartz. It is still true that you are not aware that Hunter Biden ever discussed policy with his father, discussed business with his father, influenced American policy for purposes of his business or otherwise caused the Vice President or asked the Vice President to do anything improper, right?Mr. Archer. That’s my understanding.
Common sense tells us otherwise, but in court, you need proof.
Well, then again, the whole sham with Trump has shown that speculation is all you need instead of concrete proof.
Laugh Out Loud. Rep. Goldman tried to bring in the Trump family. Even Archer’s lawyer was like, are you serious? The dude has to bring Trump into everything:
But, as I said, it’s a win for both sides. Behind the scenes, actions speak loudly as well.
Here are some parts that Fox News picked out:
But Archer testified that then-Vice President Joe Biden attended dinners with Hunter’s foreign business associates—including with an executive of Burisma Holdings.One dinner, Archer recalled, took place in the spring of 2014 at Cafe Milano in Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood. Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Archer, Eric Schwerin, the mayor of Moscow’s wife Yelena Baturina, and other business partners attended.That dinner took place just weeks after Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton—an LLC linked to Hunter Biden and his associates.Archer also recalled a dinner in the spring of 2015, again at Cafe Milano. This time, Archer said Vadym Pozharskyi—an executive at Burisma—attended the dinner.
The name is the brand:
Archer told investigators that Hunter Biden used his “very powerful name” to “add value” in pitching and securing foreign business ventures.Archer said Hunter Biden “would not be so overt,” or “overtly” say “we’re going to use my dad for this,” but instead, Archer said that he would use it to “get leverage.””Defensive leverage that the value is there in his work,” Archer said.”The value that Hunter Biden brought to it was having—you know, there was—the theoretical was corporate governance, but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value,” he continued. “I don’t think it was the sole value, but I do think that was a key component of the value.”
Archer told the committee that Hunter put Joe on the phone over 20 times:
“You aren’t talking about Dr. Jill or anybody else. You’re talking about Joe Biden. Is that fair to say?” Archer was asked.Archer replied: “Yeah, that’s fair to say…Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand…It was Hunter Biden and him,” Archer said. “We would discuss having, you know, an understanding of D.C. and that was a differentiating component of us being able to raise capital.”He added, “It wasn’t as specific as, you know…the vice president’s son, but obviously, the brand carried.”
Honestly, there are some parts where Archer worded his answers, and either side can interpret them to fit their agenda. For example:
When asked if Archer and Hunter Biden would tell business partners they had “unique access” because of Vice President Biden, Archer said: “Yes, we would say we had unique understanding of D.C. and how it operates and how that, you know, could positively reflect on the terms of our business.”
Access or understanding? See what I mean?
Archer thought Burisma would go under without “the brand,” making Hunter a needed asset on the board:
“My only thought is that I think Burisma would have gone out of business if it didn’t have the brand attached to it,” Archer said.When pressed, Archer clarified that he believed Burisma was “able to survive” for as long as it did “just because of the brand.””Because people would be intimidated to mess with them,” Archer explained.”In what way?” Archer was asked.”Legally.”
As I said, there are wins for the Republicans. Archer claimed Burisma used Hunter to alleviate any pressure on the company, especially with the prosecutor investigating the Burisma CEO:
On the sidelines of that meeting, Archer testified that Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter to make a phone call to “D.C” to address “pressure” the company was facing.”Archer said Burisma had “several pressure issues,” saying that was “kind of a theme” of the company, noting the issues involved 23 million pounds of “capital tied up in London,” U.S. visa issues, and the Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the firm.”They requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,” Archer said. “You know, government pressure from Ukrainian government investigations into Mykola, et cetera.”
We already knew that because a 2015 email from Pozharskyi to Hunter said Burisma added him to the board for political advantage:
Fox News Digital previously 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 said, adding, though, that the request was not specific to “can the big guy help.””It was always this amorphous, can we get help in D.C.?”
Archer also said the Bidens kept him out of the “black box D.C. types of conversations”:
When asked why Burisma would ask Hunter for help, Archer said he was “a lobbyist and an expert and obviously he carried, you know, a very powerful name.”That’s what they were asking for,” he said.After the Burisma executives asked for help, Hunter “called his dad,” Archer said, adding that he “did not hear this phone call.”When asked if Hunter Biden calling the vice president of the United States to “do something” about the pressure Burisma was facing would “cause off some serious alarm bells for influence peddling, conflicts of interest,” Archer testified: “Right.”Devon Archer testified that he was “left out” of “black box D.C. types of conversations.”
So, in the phone calls Archer witnessed, he didn’t hear Hunter and Joe discuss business :
Q Did Joe Biden regularly check in on his son who’s admitted he had issues with –A Every day.Q — drugs and other issues?A Uh-huh.Q Yes?A Yes. Sorry.Q In the context of those conversations, did you ever witness them discussing the substance of Hunter Biden’s business?A No.
Archer reaffirmed his answer later, saying Hunter and Joe didn’t talk about business because the latter “doesn’t have much expertise in the world of business.”
Goldman wasn’t wrong when he brought up weather and niceties. For example, in the phone call in Paris, Hunter called Joe and put him on speakerphone but didn’t discuss the business meeting they were having (Schwartz is Archer’s lawyer):
Q So is it fair to say that these conversations that my Republican colleagues asked you about where Hunter Biden had Joe Biden on the phone around business partners, that there was nothing in those conversations beyond the exchange of pleasantries?A That is correct.Q And we talked earlier about, kind of, Hunter Biden liking to project this image, this illusion, of access to his father.A Uh-huh.Q Was this just part of his effort to say, “Hey, I’m Joe Biden’s son, and I talk to Joe Biden a lot”?Mr. Schwartz. If you know. I mean, don’t speculate about what –Mr. Archer. Right. I don’t want to speculate about what he was thinking. But I think it’s just, you know, just common sense and, you know, that it’s the brand and that’s the value and — yeah. I don’t —
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