Hunter Biden’s former business associate and former Burisma board member Devon Archer appeared to meet with then-Secretary of State John Kerry right before Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired, according to an unearthed email.
Archer was scheduled to meet with Kerry on March 2, 2016, weeks before the Ukrainian parliament removed Shokin from his position, a redacted State Department email reported on by Fox News shows.
The new evidence that Hunter’s partner Devin Archer met with then Secretary of State John Kerry is particularly concerning due to the date after Biden forcing the Ukrainians to fire Shokin. https://t.co/enxG83BvLr It also again raises the continued absence of FARA charges.…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) August 27, 2023
“Devon Archer coming to see S today at 3:00pm – need someone to meet/greet him at C Street,” the March 2, 2016, email says, according to a screenshot shared by Fox. The “S” referred to in the email is a shorthand for Kerry, the outlet concluded based on additional email communications. (RELATED: The Biggest Question From Devon Archer’s Testimony About The Biden Family Remains Unanswered)
The email was first released in 2019 and it resulted in a records request from Republican Sens. Grassley of Iowa and Johnson of Wisconsin, sent to Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Ukrainian parliament relieved Shokin of his duties in March 2016, a month after Shokin filed his letter of resignation at the request of then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Then-Vice President Joe Biden bragged in September 2016 about how he used a $1 billion loan guarantee to pressure Ukraine into firing Shokin.
“You remember last year I was authorized to say we’d do the second tranche of a billion dollars,” Joe Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations. “And [Poroshenko] 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.'”
Archer testified before the House Oversight Committee in July, saying the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma and kept the firm in business. He said Joe Biden spoke with his son’s business associates over 20 times and specifically recalled a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina, as well as a spring 2015 dinner with Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi.
Archer also testified that Hunter Biden “called D.C.” in December 2015 because of pressure from Pozharskyi and Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky. It’s unclear if Joe Biden was on the other end of the phone call. (RELATED: Burisma Was Told To Remove Picture Of Joe Biden And Devon Archer From Its Website, Emails Show)
Devon Archer to Tucker Carlson: “Shokin was considered a threat to the business…. I think anyone in government is always a threat and always trying to shake down these businesses that were highly successful…And so at the end of the day, Shokin was taking a look” @DailyCaller https://t.co/LNhZnzMwAO
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) August 4, 2023
Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson interviewed Archer after his congressional testimony. Archer told Tucker that Shokin was viewed as a “threat” to Burisma’s business.
“Shokin was considered a threat to the business,” Archer said. “And I, and again, I wasn’t involved in Shokin or any of this, but he was a threat, he ended up seizing assets of Nikolai. House, some cars, a couple of properties. And Nikolai actually never went back to Ukraine after Shokin seized all of his assets. And the case was- I mean obviously this, it’s all out there,” he added.
The “Nikolai” moniker was used to refer to Zlochevsky, whose property Ukrainian authorities raided in February 2016 as part of Shokin’s investigation into Burisma, according to reports from Ukrainian media. Shokin turned in his resignation letter later that month, and Ukrainian parliament forced him out in March 2016, the Kyiv Post reported.
Shokin said in a Fox News interview Saturday that he was fired because the Biden family was “being bribed,” and said it was a “case of corruption” to withhold $1 billion in order for him to be removed from office.
An FBI FD-1023 document details an alleged bribery scheme involving Zlochevsky, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, based on intelligence gathered by a confidential human source. Archer testified that the document was not evidence that the Bidens took bribes from Zlochevsky. House Oversight Chairman James Comer said in June the FBI is currently investigating the contents of the FD-1023 form.
Hunter Biden sat on Burisma’s board alongside Archer and made more than $80,000 per month from his position. The Biden family and its associates received more than $20 million in payments from Ukrainian, Romanian, Chinese, Kazakh and Russian business associates, according to bank records released by the House Oversight Committee.
The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment by the time of publication.