Evidence is piling up showing President Biden was involved in his family’s shady foreign business deals, while looming testimony from a former associate could make it harder for the White House to refute charges of influence peddling and bribery.
Devon Archer witnessed phone calls with the ‘Big Guy’
Former Biden family business associate Devon Archer has been summoned to testify this month before a House committee investigating the family’s foreign business deals. According to aides, Mr. Archer will appear for a deposition on Capitol Hill on July 31.
Mr. Archer, 48, is a critical witness in the probe who, according to congressional investigators, arranged lucrative roles on the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma for both himself and the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Mr. Archer, through his company Rosemont Seneca Bohai, also accepted $3.5 million in wire transfers from Burisma between 2014 and 2016 and sent more than $700,000 to three of Hunter Biden’s bank accounts.
According to an FBI informant’s testimony released last week by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, Burisma paid Hunter Biden to “protect us through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” as it sought to purchase a U.S. oil and gas company.
Mr. Archer may also have some of the most direct knowledge of any American witness of the president’s involvement in ending a corruption probe that had been dogging Burisma and preventing its entry into the U.S. energy industry.
Mr. Archer was present at a 2015 hotel meeting with two top Burisma executives in Dubai, where Hunter Biden appeared to showcase his influence by phoning his father and putting him on speakerphone at the table.
The New York Post, which first revealed the call, reported Hunter Biden phoned then-Vice President Biden after Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky said he needed to speak to Hunter Biden urgently.
Mr. Archer, who is facing prison time on an unrelated securities fraud conviction, will claim to House investigators that he witnessed up to two dozen instances where Hunter Biden phoned his dad in the presence of business associates, The Washington Times confirmed.
Mr. Archer met with then-Vice President Biden in the White House on April 16, 2014, just days before Mr. Biden flew to Ukraine and one day after Burisma wired $112,758 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. Mr. Biden appeared in Kyiv on April 22 with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsemy Yasnyuk and delivered a speech to lawmakers regarding Russia’s aggression in Crimea and touting U.S. solidarity with Ukraine.
Mr. Archer joined the Burisma board within a day of Mr. Biden’s speech. Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board a month later, on May 12.
“We’ve known that President Biden lied about not discussing Hunter’s overseas business dealings,” Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has been investigating the Biden foreign business deals for several years, told The Times. “It certainly wouldn’t surprise me to learn he was far more involved. I hope House investigators will ask Devon Archer what he discussed with then-VP Biden in the White House on April 16, 2014, five days before Biden traveled to Ukraine and six days before Archer joined the board of Burisma. The dates of these events are not coincidences.”
Bribery allegations detailed by trusted FBI informant
Congressional investigators want Mr. Archer to explain why Mr. Zlochevsky was urgently seeking a meeting with Hunter Biden. The request coincided with Mr. Zlochevsky’s effort to thwart Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin’s corruption probe into Burisma.
According to information provided to the FBI by a paid informant and released last week by Mr. Grassley, Mr. Zlochevsky said he eventually paid a $10 million bribe split between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden, in exchange for ensuring Mr. Shokin’s ouster.
According to the newly released FBI memo, the informant said he warned Mr. Zlochevsky that Mr. Shokin’s Burisma corruption investigation would make it harder to purchase a U.S-based energy business. The informant said Mr Zlochevsky replied, “Don’t worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.”
The informant also claimed Mr. Zlochevsky said “both” Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Biden insisted Hunter Biden should remain on the Burisma board, which was paying the president’s son up to $1 million annually.
During a call with the FBI informant shortly after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump, Mr. Zlochevsky labeled the $10 million payment to the Bidens “poluchili,” which is a Russian criminal slang term for a forced or coerced payment. According to the memo, the informant said Mr. Zlochevsky claimed to have text messages and recordings that he said would prove he was “forced” to pay the Bidens in exchange for the removal of Mr. Shokin.
Second business associate confirms Joe Biden’s role in son’s deals
The FBI memo follows new revelations by an IRS whistleblower and an FBI agent that the elder Mr. Biden may have helped his son secure business deals by popping in on meetings.
Rob Walker, who is among a handful of close Biden family business associates, told the FBI Hunter Biden arranged for his father to make cameo appearances at several meetings with officials from a Chinese energy company that eventually paid millions to the Biden family and associates, including Mr. Walker.
Hunter Biden requested his father drop into meetings with the Chinese energy company officials while he was vice president and shortly after he left office, according to Mr. Walker’s interview with an FBI agent.
Shortly after Mr. Biden left the White House in 2017, Mr. Walker said Hunter Biden asked his father, “I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys, and could you?”
Mr. Biden stopped in at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Mr. Walker and Hunter Biden were meeting with executives from CEFC, a Chinese energy firm linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Biden showed up and sat down at the table, “Just to say hello to everybody,” according to Mr. Walker.
Hunter looped in on Biden foreign policy
The Times recently reported on a newly disclosed 2016 White House email sent to then-Vice President Biden from his scheduler that looped in Hunter Biden. The email provided both Mr. Biden and Hunter Biden with the details for the vice president’s upcoming trips to Delaware and Rhode Island as well as a planned call to Mr. Poroshenko, then president of Ukraine.
The call took place on May 27, two months after Mr. Shokin was ousted from office. According to a readout of the call provided by the White House, the two leaders “discussed the importance of continuing to institute reforms in the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the significance of Ukraine’s progress toward implementing judicial reforms and meeting IMF conditions,” among other matters.
Bidens rake in the profits
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigation into the Biden family business schemes unearthed evidence through financial records that the family set up more than 20 shell companies, most of them created during Mr. Biden’s time as vice president.
Bank records scrutinized by lawmakers show the Biden family and their business associates pocketed $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies and appeared to try to conceal the payments through a maze of financial transactions.
Hunter Biden’s profits, House investigators determined, came from China, Ukraine and Romania.
None of the financial records could connect the payments to the elder Mr. Biden, and in the FBI informant’s memo, Mr. Zlochevsky explained he did not send money directly to the “Big Guy,” who the informant understood to be Joe Biden, but instead deposited the funds in various bank accounts.
Mr. Zlochevsky told the informant “it would take ten years,” for investigators to untangle the bank records and connect Mr. Biden with the money.
Democrats scoff at allegations
The allegations against Mr. Biden and his family are unverified, Democrats point out, and even Mr. Grassley acknowledged the texts and recordings Mr. Zlochevsky claims to possess may not exist.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes the FBI informant’s story is made up.
“I don’t think there is any credibility to that person,” said Mr. Nadler, of New York.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight panel, said Republicans released the FBI memo without providing context and that Mr. Zlochevsky had previously denied any contact with Mr. Biden while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board.
Mr. Raskin called the memo “unverified, secondhand, years-old allegations.”
Republicans closing in
Mr. Comer, in a statement released Monday, said Mr. Archer’s revelations about Hunter Biden’s phone calls to then Vice President Biden during his business meetings with foreign nationals shows the president was dishonest when he claimed to have no involvement or knowledge of the deals.
“Evidence continues to be revealed that Joe Biden was very much involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes and he likely benefited financially,” Mr. Comer said. “This includes deals with a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch and a CCP-linked energy company that generated millions for the Bidens and undermined American interests. We look forward to speaking soon with Devon Archer about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business affairs.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.