Aug
6
“[Joe Biden] was aware of Hunter’s business. He met with Hunter’s business partners.” — Devon Archer, being interviewed by Tucker Carlson
I originally had something different in mind for this week. But, then this came up and, since it makes for a great sequel to last week’s post, I wanted to provide my own summary in a timely manner.
I am, of course, talking about the fact that Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, was interviewed by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. This is the same committee that held the hearing with the IRS whistleblowers, as I wrote about last week. As before, Fred Lucas of “The Daily Signal” provided several “takeaways” from the hearing, which I will attempt to summarize below:
1) In response to questioning about Hunter Biden’s influence on federal policy, Archer answered:
“I think Burisma was constantly looking for more, and it kind of speaks a little bit to that other email that we used as an exhibit earlier where it’s, like, we’re going to use my dad’s thing and take credit for it. There was an element that [Hunter] was always trying to avoid that but at the same time trying to prove value. So, it was this element of, like, signals….
I have no basis to understand what his father and his conversations were about policy in Ukraine. But, as you can see, that seems pretty familiar, that, you know, he can’t influence it but take credit for it. I mean, that was — it’s literally the back and forth between the last exhibit and this exhibit. That’s what goes on. People send signals, and those signals are basically used as currency.”
2) Archer referred to Joe Biden as “the brand” that allowed Hunter Biden to attract investors. He confirmed this twice when questioned specifically about it, adding: “I don’t think about it as, you know, Joe directly, but it’s fair. That’s fair to say. Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand.”
3) The FBI have a statement from a confidential informant that Burisma paid a $5 million bribe to the then-V.P. Joe Biden and another $5 million to Hunter Biden. Hunter was put on the board and brought along access to “the brand”. Archer believes that Burisma would not have survived without it. He explained:
“Well, the capabilities to navigate D.C. that they were able to, you know, basically be in the news cycle. And I think that preserved them from a, you know, from a longevity standpoint…. Because people would be intimidated to mess with them…. Legally.”
(Biden boasted in 2018 that he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine unless the government fired Viktor Shokin, the Prosecutor General investigating Burisma at the time.)
4) Shokin wasn’t Burisma’s only concern, and executives asked for help on other matters, too. But, it was not specific requests for or offers of help from “the big guy” (i.e., Joe Biden). They were more “amorphous” requests like, “Can we get help in D.C.?” When asked what such requests were really asking for, Archer said,
“Well, I mean, [Hunter] was a lobbyist and an expert and obviously he carried, you know, a very powerful name. So, I think it was — that’s what they were asking for.”
5) As reported by Lucas: “Then-Vice President Biden attended dinners with Hunter Biden’s foreign business partners who wired money to various Biden family-associated companies, according to Archer.” Archer mentioned one such dinner that included Yelena Baturina, a billionaire and the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Around that time, there was a $3.5 million wire transfer from Baturina to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, one of Hunter’s business operations with Archer. There was another wire transfer to Rosemont Seneca from businessman Kenes Rakishev, this one for a mere $142,000 but understood to be for the purchase of an expensive car for Hunter.
6) In meetings with business associates, Hunter was known to remind people that he was in contact with his father and would sometimes call “the big guy” up and put him on speakerphone, which the associates thought was pretty cool.
“At the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand. I mean, it’s like anything, you know, if you’re Jamie Dimon’s son or any CEO…. [T]here was brand being delivered along with other capabilities and reach… I think ‘brand’ is the best way to describe it.”
Again, for more details on the above (and a full transcript of the Archer interview), you can read Lucas’s article here.
