© J. Scott Applewhite/APHunter Biden's former business partner, Devon Archer
A source familiar with Archer's nearly four-hour closed-door interview said that Archer testified that Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings added Hunter to its board in early 2014 because of the Biden "brand" as his dad led US policy toward Ukraine.
Archer testified that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and company executive Vadym Pozharski in late 2015 put intense pressure on Hunter to enlist the US government to help oust Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin, who had investigated Burisma for corruption.
The former Hunter Biden partner added that he witnessed the then-second son, Zlochevsky and Pozharski step away as they "called DC" to discuss the issue.
Archer also testified that Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone more than 20 times during business meetings to promote "the brand" — including at a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li of BHR Partners, a state-backed investment fund coSteven Nelsonfounded by Hunter in 2013 after he introduced his father to Li in-person in China's capital during an official trip.
Archer also confirmed that then-Vice President Biden attended an April 2015 dinner at Washington's Cafe Milano with Pozharski and former first lady of Moscko Yelena Baturina, as previously reported by The Post.
Archer appeared after the Justice Department and Archer's own lawyer attempted to dismiss "speculation" that federal prosecutors had tried to intimidate Archer ahead of his planned testimony with a Saturday request that a judge begin the process to imprison Archer on an unrelated fraud conviction.
Republicans hoped Archer would share damning information about President Biden's role in his son's dealings in Ukraine and Russia. "He has an opportunity to be a hero," Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Sunday.
But one of the panel's leading Democrats, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), told reporters Monday that he wanted to "figure out how this is connected at all to President Biden."
Republicans and Democrats were given alternating one-hour blocks of time to conduct the deposition.
Archer's planned testimony, reported last week by The Post, included the revelation that Hunter, now 53, frequently put his then-vice president father on speakerphone with his foreign associates.
Archer was a central figure in Hunter Biden's dealings with Burisma, whose owner Zlochevsky, allegedly told an FBI informant he was "coerced" to pay $10 million in bribes to Hunter and then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden has tried to laugh off the bribery allegation, telling The Post last month that the account was "malarkey" and asking, "Where's the money?"
But Republicans are investigating whether the Biden family kept overseas bank accounts. Communications on Hunter's laptop refer to Burisma opening a Maltese bank account for him in 2016.
Archer also was involved in Hunter's courtship of two Russian billionaires, including Baturina, whose mysterious transfer of $3.5 million in February 2014 to a Hunter Biden- and Archer-linked account became an issue in the 2020 presidential election.
Archer met with Joe Biden in early 2014, around the time he and Hunter Biden joined Burisma, according to Obama White House visitor logs. As second son, Hunter earned up to $1 million per year for his board role, despite no relevant energy industry experience.
The partner later joined the sitting vice president and his son at Café Milano with Pozharskyi, Baturina and a delegation of Kazakhstani associates.
The ex-business partner also was expected to be asked about real estate investments involving Baturina and fellow Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Baturina paid $3.5 million on Valentine's Day 2014 to a Hunter Biden-linked firm, according to a 2020 report from GOP-led Senate committees, though Biden allies have pointed the finger at Archer, claiming he used a once-shared corporate entity for his own dealings.
Documents from Hunter's abandoned laptop hard drive show he was involved in work with Baturina, as well as Yevtushenkov — neither of whom has been sanctioned by the Biden administration — though it's unclear how much money the first son may have earned through the ventures.
Laptop records indicate that Hunter met with Yevtushenkov, who until recently controlled large Russian military contractors and Russia's largest cellphone provider, in 2012 and 2013 — first in New York, then in DC — as he searched for property investments.
An associate of Yevtushenkov told The Post this year, "I asked [Yevtushenkov], 'Why are you doing this?' on the front end — before I understood that they were going to buy some real estate."
"He made it very clear to me that, you know ... 'I think it would be good to have a good relationship with this guy ... maybe he can do a favor for us and we can do a favor for him,'" the source said. "It was a complete quid pro quo that he was going in for."
"I told him that's not the way it works in America, [but] he basically laughed at me and told me I was so naïve," the source added.
At the time, Yevtushenkov's cellphone provider, MTS, faced a long-running US investigation into nearly $1 billion in bribes paid to Uzbekistani officials between 2004 and 2012.
MTS was listed on the New York Stock Exchange before trading in its shares was suspended in July 2022, and settled the case with the Trump Justice Department in 2019, agreeing to pay an $850 million fine.
The elder Biden had claimed for years that "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealing." In recent weeks, the White House adopted the line that the president "was never in business with his son."
Matthew Schwartz, Archer's lawyer, denied any connection between the congressional testimony and the request by Manhattan federal prosecutors for Judge Ronnie Abrams to set a date for Archer to start his year-and-a-day sentence for defrauding an American Indian tribe.
Archer was convicted in 2018 of securities fraud for swindling the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe as part of a scheme that involved the sale of bonds. Hunter Biden was not charged in connection with that venture.
Archer's conviction was overturned later that year — but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in 2020 and rejected his appeal earlier this year.
"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," Schwartz said in a statement Sunday.
"To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation," he added. "In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up on Monday and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators."
The Justice Department also denied that its letter, which caused an uproar among House Republicans, was seeking Archer's surrender "before his Congressional testimony."
In the letter to Abrams, Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams wrote: "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."
"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," Williams added.
Schwartz previously said it was "premature" to have the judge set a date for his client's incarceration before he considers his appeal options.
He is expected to file a formal response to the prosecutors' letter by Wednesday.
Reader Comments
🤔 Wonder how much more of this bullshiiit the people will take. Before they “alter or abolish”. Time will tell
He should be hailed as a Martyr. Sad that the once great (it was) nation of the U.S. is now just another of Trump's 'shithole countries' where the dictator gets to decide over life and death.