Republicans on the House Oversight committee, under the leadership of chairman James Comer, subpoenaed Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer on Monday to compel testimony on his involvement in the first family’s foreign overseas ventures.
Archer served with Hunter Biden on the board of a Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden was appointed to Burisma’s board, for which he earned $83,000 per month, in 2014 while his father was vice president. After his lucrative position on the board drew criticism, Hunter Biden resigned in April of 2019.
“Both information that the Committee has reviewed and public reporting indicates that Mr. Archer played a significant role in the Biden family’s business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine,” Comer wrote in letter obtained by CBS News explaining his call for Archer to testify. “While undertaking these ventures with the Biden family, your client met with then-Vice President Biden on multiple occasions, including in the White House. Mr. Archer’s testimony is critical to the Committee’s investigation.”
In March 2016, President Biden demanded Ukraine fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating Burisma, threatening to withdraw $1 billion in U.S. military aid to the country. Republicans have since alleged that Biden used his international sway to protect the company paying his son. American and European allies had also accused Shokin of refusing to pursue demonstrably corrupt politicians within the Ukrainian government.
On Monday, Republican senator Chuck Grassley revealed that the FBI source who reported Biden’s alleged role in a bribery scheme said that a Ukrainian businessman possessed fifteen audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden as an “insurance policy.” Grassley’s speech came after House Oversight Committee members reviewed the redacted version of an FBI-generated whistleblower document, provided by FBI Director Christopher Wray. The document included the allegation that Joe and Hunter Biden received $10 million in 2015 and 2016 for the then-vice president to push Shokin’s termination as a favor to Mykola Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian owner of Burisma, the New York Post reported.
“Let me assist for purposes of transparency,” Grassley said on the Senate floor. “The 1023 produced to that House Committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them.”
Grassley noted that the FBI is guilty of a double standard in ignoring the Biden bribery allegation while playing into the probe of former President Trump, who was indicted last week for allegedly mishandling classified records after he left office.
The committee, Comer said, is concerned with foreign nationals buying access and influence by entering into business relationships with the immediate family members of high-profile U.S. political figures, namely Biden.
“The Committee is investigating the national security implications of a Vice President’s or President’s (and candidates for such offices) immediate family members receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals, foreign companies, or foreign governments without any oversight,” Comer added.
As part of its probe, the committee is seeking changes to government ethics and financial disclosure laws so that there can be more transparency on a vice president’s or president’s immediate family members’ financial engagements.
Archer, who Comer’s letter primarily addresses, was convicted in 2018 of defrauding a Native American tribal entity and “various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity,” according to the Justice Department. In 2022, Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.