House Republicans are probing whether the Department of Justice retaliated against one of their impeachment witnesses — a former business associate of Hunter Biden who revealed a 2014 conversation then-Vice President Biden had with his son and the former mayor of Moscow.
Jason Galanis, who is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence for defrauding an American Indian tribe, disclosed a May 4, 2014, speaker phone conversation between Hunter and Joe Biden and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and her husband, the ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Galanis was interviewed last month from his prison cell in Montgomery, Ala., and during his stay, he alleged he had been a “victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice” to hinder congressional investigators.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Andy Biggs on Tuesday sent letters on Tuesday to Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters and Manhattan Assistant US Attorney Negar Tekeei about the allegations.
“Mr. Galanis specifically alleged in his transcribed interview that he has been singled out for unequal treatment while in BOP custody after he asserted in a petition for commutation of his sentence that Hunter Biden and another business associate, Devon Archer, were complicit in the same illegal acts that landed Mr. Galanis in jail,” the lawmakers wrote in the missives, copies of which were obtained exclusively by The Post.
Galanis, 53, was sentenced in 2020 but applied under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for home confinement three years later.
While receiving initial approval in California and Florida, Galanis’ appeal “was reversed” the day after the Oversight Committee subpoenaed Archer, Hunter’s former business partner.
“I understand from a former high-ranking Bureau of Prisons [BOP] official that the SDNY prosecutors aggressively weighed in with the Bureau of Prisons staff to oppose my release,” Galanis told House lawmakers during his interview.
“I formally appealed the reversal. With each appeal stage, the BOP reason for my denial changed. For example, first, it was that there was too much time left on my sentence. This is not a valid reason for the denial,” he added.
“Next, it was that the CARES Act expired on May 10, 2023. This rationale is contrived and is contradicted by the approval on June 9th, a date after the purported May 10th expiration,” Galanis also said.
“Moreover, the BOP policy is that all CARES Act applications submitted before May 10th were to be processed, which I witnessed firsthand with fellow inmates being released well into late summer. I was being treated differently.”
The House lawmakers asked for records related to Galanis’ home confinement appeals to be handed over by March 19, including all communications between the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department.
Archer, who was also convicted in the tribal bond scheme and testified before the Oversight Committee last July, was present for the call at a party in Brooklyn but did not mention it during his transcribed interview.
Both were indicted in 2016 for selling $60 million in a bond sale ripoff to a South Dakota tribe, with Archer receiving a conviction two years later and a one-year prison sentence.
Galanis told House lawmakers that Baturina — who transferred $3.5 million in February 2014 to a firm controlled by Archer and Hunter Biden — and Luzhkov were referred to as “our friends” while the second son spoke with his father.
“During the May 4th party, we were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father,” Galanis said. “Hunter called his father, said hello and ‘hold on, Pops,’ then put the call on speakerphone and said, ‘I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello.’”
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“The vice president said ‘hello’ and some pleasantries of ‘Hope you had safe travels,’ and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, ‘OK then, you be good to my boy,’” he added.
“Hunter responded by saying, ‘Everything is good, and we are moving ahead.’ The vice president said something about ‘being helpful,’ and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later.”
Baturina had also attended a Feb. 4, 2014, dinner with Hunter Biden, but the 54-year-old first son told House lawmakers during his Feb. 28 deposition that she was not introduced to his dad at that event.
“I never received a dime from Ms. Baturina,” Hunter also said.
Galanis said the phone call “stunned” him at the time, adding that it “was clear to me this was a pre-arranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of his position.”
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Reps for the Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.