Hunter Biden’s murky overseas business dealings were being discussed in the halls of Congress on Monday, with his former business partner, Devon Archer, testifying to the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door session.
Sources close to Archer say the former Burisma board member will tell Congress that on at least two dozen occasions, Biden had then-Vice President Joe Biden on speakerphone at his meetings with foreign potential business partners, including from Ukraine and Romania, implying Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s deals.
If the claims are true, Hunter Biden’s payment by foreign companies to allegedly wield influence with his father while Joe Biden was a government official could lead to Foreign Agents Registration Act violation charges, The Daily Mail reported.
Under FARA, anyone advocating for foreign entities to U.S. government officials, or acting as a publicist for a foreign entity in the U.S., must be added to a Department of Justice public register.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Archer in June, saying Archer “played a significant role in the Biden family’s business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine” and that the committee believed Archer had information relevant to the investigation, Politico reported.
There has been no proof that President Biden was involved in or profited from his son’s business dealings.
The Wall Street Journal wrote: “The White House has repeatedly said the president wasn’t involved in his son’s businesses, and Hunter Biden has said that he had a longstanding agreement not to talk about deals with his father. None of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting has found that Joe Biden benefited from his son’s business activities.”
Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma in 2014, while Joe Biden was Vice President and responsibile for U.S. relations with Ukraine.
At the time, Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Victor Shokin, was investigating Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky for corruption. Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust Shokin in March 2016 because Shokin wasn’t pursuing corruption among the country’s politicians (not because he was investigating Burisma), according to USA Today.
Two IRS whistleblowers who ran the five-year criminal tax probe into Hunter Biden testified to Congress that there were potential FARA violations arising from his work with Burisma in 2014 and 2015, the Daily Mail reported.
But IRS Criminal Investigation Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and his subordinate Joseph Ziegler claimed investigators were blocked from pursuing those leads by Department of Justice officials.
Hunter Biden’s laptop emails show that he orchestrated a meeting with Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi and Joe Biden at a 2015 dinner at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C.. Hunter Biden also helped Burisma hire a Democrat-linked lobby firm, Blue Star Strategies, to improve Burisma’s image in D.C.
The Department of Justice investigated Blue Star for its work for the Ukrainian gas firm. Although prosecutors failed to charge the D.C. consultants, they were forced last year to belatedly file a FARA registration acknowledging their lobbying of U.S. officials for the foreign company.
A lawyer for fellow Burisma board member Archer told DailyMail.com that his client has testified to a grand jury about Burisma, revealing Delaware prosecutors have obtained evidence about Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian firm from first-hand witnesses.
Archer had a meeting with Joe Biden at the White House in April 2014, days before he joined Burisma’s board. Archer likely will be asked by lawmakers during his Congressional interview on Monday what was discussed in that meeting.
From 2013 through 2018, Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with Burisma and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive and iCloud account and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees.
The documents and the analysis, which don’t show what he did to earn millions from his Chinese partners, raise questions about national security, business ethics, and potential legal exposure, NBC reported.
