Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner testifies as threats to impeach President Biden grow

Hunter Biden’s former business partner gave testimony to the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing on Monday.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the committee, issued a statement following Devon Archer’s four-hour testimony where he claimed the Biden family, including President Joe Biden, was involved in foreign business dealings.

“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family,” he said.

In his testimony, Archer alleged that President Biden, the then-vice president, joined his son for dinners with foreign business associates while the owners of Burisma, a Ukrainian oil and gas company that seated Hunter Biden on its board, pressured the president’s son to get help from Washington, D.C.

“Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question what else he is hiding from the American people,” Comer added.

Comer was the one who issued a subpoena to Archer last month to testify about his time as Hunter Biden’s business partner while he was working for foreign companies in China, Russia and Ukraine.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who also attended the hearing, said Archer’s testimony did not show President Biden was directly involved with Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately 20 times over the course of 10 year relationship, Hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people, and they never once spoke about any business dealings,” Goldman said, per The Hill.

“As he described it, it was all casual conversation, niceties, the weather, ‘What’s going on?’” Goldman said, adding that. “There wasn’t a single conversation about any of the business dealings that Hunter had.”

But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., who also attended the hearing, said that Archer told the committee “that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden spoke over 20 times about his business deals, not about the weather, not about what was for lunch, about his business deals.”

DOJ sends a letter to Archer a day before hearing

On Saturday, prior to the hearing, the Department of Justice sent a letter to a New York district court judge asking her to set a date for Archer to surrender himself to serve a one year prison sentence for committing fraud. He had appealed his sentence, issued in February 2022, but his appeal was denied.

“To be clear, the Government does not request (and has never requested) that the defendant surrender before his Congressional testimony,” the DOJ letter said. “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.”

The letter added that any court-ordered surrender date should be scheduled after Archer’s congressional testimony.

Comer said on Fox News that this was the first he’d heard of the DOJ doing anything on a Saturday.

The letter drew a strong reaction from other Republicans as well. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., posted online that the letter serves as DOJ’s clarification that the agency will not prevent Archer from testifying.

“Witness intimidation & obstruction? Nah, nothing to see here,” he said.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also chimed in: “If true, impeachable. If untrue, libelous,” with a link to a news story that alleged that DOJ is urging the court to put Archer in prison a day before his testimony.

Archer’s lawyer issued a statement, saying they “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.”

“To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation,” the statement said. “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.”

Impeachment threats continue

This hearing marks the most recent development in Republican efforts to link the president to his son’s foreign business dealings. Last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested that congressional investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings have created a strong case for impeachment.

The White House responded to McCarthy’s comments, calling them “a ridiculous, baseless stunt, intended to attack the President at a time when House Republicans should instead be joining the President to focus on the important issues facing the American people.”

“But just as soon as McCarthy floated this stunt, he was met with resistance — from members of his own party and even his own caucus,” the statement said, per The Hill.

McCarthy continues to be cautious about impeaching Biden. He told CNN a day after his initial comments that some of the bigger allegations, like the president’s involvement in a bribery scheme, still need to be verified. Instead, McCarthy floated an impeachment inquiry.

“The evidence and stuff that’s come out is what is causing (McCarthy) to change his tune,” a senior Republican House staffer told Time Magazine.

His remarks come after a federal court judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s plea deal said she has concerns as the DOJ continues its investigations into the president’s son, as Deseret News reported.

The White House said that the president will not pardon his son if he is convicted.

Some GOP lawmakers like Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado have already submitted articles of impeachment and are ready to begin the process. Meanwhile, others like Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said McCarthy was “in the right spot on this.”

“He said it is too early for an impeachment inquiry,” he said, per Punchbowl News. “I believe the speaker is right. Let’s not follow Pelosi’s example by cutting corners on impeachment.”