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The Biggest Question From Devon Archer’s Testimony About The Biden Family Remains Unanswered

House Oversight Committee Interviews Hunter Biden Business Associate

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

James Lynch Contributor
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Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, testified to the House Oversight Committee about how Hunter “called D.C.” on behalf of Ukrainian oligarchs without specifying who was on the other end of the call.

Archer testified to House Oversight on July 31. He gave the committee information regarding Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and Joe Biden’s involvement with his son’s business partners. Notably, Archer described the moment when Hunter Biden “called D.C.” because of pressure from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma’s executives, Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadim Pozharskyi.

“The request — you know, basically the request is like, can D.C. help?” Archer said, according to the transcript of his testimony. “But there were not — you know, I’m not going to — there were not — it wasn’t like — there weren’t specific, you know, can the big guy help? It was — it’s always this amorphous, can we get help in D.C.?” (RELATED: Joe Biden’s Office Devised Talking Points About Burisma Executive Right After Hunter ‘Called DC,’ Emails Show)

Hunter Biden’s business associates used the “big guy” moniker to describe Joe Biden, emails from the Hunter Biden laptop archive show. Former Hunter business associate Tony Bobulinski confirmed to the New York Post that the “big guy” was a reference to Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden made the call during an appointment with Zlochevsky and Pozharskyi at the Dubai hotel where Burisma was holding its board meeting in December 2015, Archer testified. Archer said he did not participate in the phone call and could not confirm whether Joe Biden was on the receiving end. (RELATED: Burisma Was Told To Remove Picture Of Joe Biden And Devon Archer From Its Website, Emails Show)

“What did Hunter Biden do after he was given that request?” Oversight Committee general counsel James Mandolfo asked Archer, according to the testimony transcript.

“Listen, I did not hear this phone call, but he — he called his dad,” Archer replied.

“How do you know that?”

“Because he — because I think Vadym told me. But, again, it’s unclear. I just know that there was a call that happened there and I was not privy to it.”

“What did Vadym tell you about the call?” Mandolfo asked.

“Just that — just that they — ‘We called D.C.’ But he didn’t — you know, again, it’s not like the — there was not a — there was not, ‘Oh, we’ve got all our problems solved’ kind of, you know, revelation. I was — I was not on that side of the equation and kind of working on the lobbying side of the business,” Archer said.

Archer continued to discuss the call to D.C., saying he was unsure if Hunter Biden called his father.

“Was it during that drive back that Vadym told you that Hunter Biden had called VP Biden at that time?” Mandolfo asked.

“It would have been at some point there or after,” Archer said. “You know, maybe the next day. Again, we spent — you know, on a board trip where you travel with people from all over the world, we spent days together.”

“He told you expressly he called his father or that he called D.C.?”

“D.C., D.C.,” Archer clarified. (RELATED: Devon Archer Says Its ‘Categorically False’ Joe Biden Didn’t Know About Hunter’s Business Dealings)

Congressional Republicans have not obtained evidence showing Joe Biden was on the phone call. Burisma hired lobbying firm Blue Star strategies in November 2015 to bolster its Washington, D.C., lobbying operation, the firm disclosed in a May 2022 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) form.

Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop show he urged Pozharskyi to hire Blue Star in November 2015 as the lobbying contract was being negotiated. Blue Star met with State Department officials on Burisma and Zlochevsky’s behalf twice in early 2016, according to the FARA form.

Days after Hunter Biden’s phone call, then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office devised talking points for how State Department officials should respond to media inquiries related to Burisma and Mykola Zlochevsky, internal emails show. Then-Vice President Biden spoke to Ukraine’s parliament Dec. 9, 2015, and urged them to combat rampant corruption, White House archives show.

Devon Archer told House Oversight that Joe Biden and Hunter spoke “more than 20 times about their business deals.” He also recalled a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina and a spring 2015 dinner with Vadim Pozharskyi in attendance. Archer also testified about Joe Biden having coffee with Jonathan Li, a Chinese business associate of Hunter Biden whose daughter received a college recommendation letter from then-VP Biden.

Archer said the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma from legal scrutiny and allowed the firm to stay in business after Hunter joined its board.

Bank records released by the House Oversight Committee show Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Romanian and Kazakh business partners paid the Biden family and its associates an estimated $20 million. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee on May 26 includes a transcript from an FBI interview with former Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker. Walker said Joe Biden met with his son’s Chinese business partners shortly after his vice presidency concluded.

Zlochevsky is named in an FBI FD-1023 form with allegations of a bribery scheme involving Joe and Hunter Biden. Devon Archer testified that the form is not evidence Joe Biden took bribes. (RELATED: Hunter Biden Warned Devon Archer About Potential FARA Violations Right Before Taking Burisma Board Seat, Emails Show)

Joe Biden bragged in September 2016 about pressuring then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine.

“You remember last year I was authorized to say we’d do the second tranche of a billion dollars,” Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations. “And he didn’t fire his chief prosecutor. And because I have the confidence of the president, I was there, and I said: I’m not signing it. Until you fire him, we’re not signing, man. Get it straight. We’re not doing it.”

Devon Archer told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson that Shokin was a “threat” to Burisma’s business and that he’d been “taking a look” at the company. Archer recalled a raid on Zlochevsky’s property, ordered by Shokin in February 2016 right before Ukrainian officials pushed him out. In part one of his interview with Archer, Carlson revealed a personalized letter then-VP Biden sent Archer in January 2011, years before Archer and Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board in 2014.

“When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai,” Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer said in a press release after Archer’s testimony.

House Oversight is preparing to eventually subpoena the Biden family, Comer told Fox Business on Thursday. “This is always going to end with the Bidens coming in front of the committee,” he said.

Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors charged Hunter Biden in June with two tax misdemeanors and felony gun possession. He was expected to plead guilty to the tax charges in late July and sign a diversion agreement for the gun charge in order to avoid jail time. (RELATED: The Next Step In The Hunter Biden Investigation Is A Biggie. Will House Oversight Take It?)

The younger Biden’s plea deal imploded when U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika of Delaware scrutinized an immunity provision hidden inside Biden’s diversion agreement. Noreika’s questioning resulted in a disagreement between the DOJ and Biden’s attorneys on the scope of the immunity deal after prosecutor Leo Wise said Biden could still be charged for potential FARA violations, according to court transcripts.

Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges as a result of the disagreement. The DOJ investigation into Biden is still ongoing, with two IRS whistleblowers accusing DOJ prosecutors of giving Biden special treatment based on their knowledge of the investigation.