Hunter Was Selling the Biden ‘Brand’
Devon Archer confirms that the President’s son was influence-peddling. By The Editorial Board July 31, 2023 6:41 pm ET Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devon Archer, has testified behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee about the President's ties to his son's foreign business dealings, which included more than 20 calls on speaker phone with business associates. Images: Reuters/Associated Press Composite: Mark Kelly The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition Everyone knows Hunter Biden wasn’t selling his expertise in energy markets when he teame
Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devon Archer, has testified behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee about the President's ties to his son's foreign business dealings, which included more than 20 calls on speaker phone with business associates. Images: Reuters/Associated Press Composite: Mark Kelly The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
Everyone knows Hunter Biden wasn’t selling his expertise in energy markets when he teamed up for lucrative gigs with energy companies from Ukraine and China. But then what was he selling? The answer, as provided Monday by Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer, was the Biden “brand.”
Mr. Archer testified behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee, and we await the transcript to see his complete testimony. But according to a summary released by Oversight Chairman James Comer, Mr. Archer confirmed that Hunter was promoting the Biden family name and the political access it implied.
This is no great surprise given what we’ve already learned about Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm, and CEFC China Energy. Mr. Archer told the committee that Hunter put his father, then serving as Vice President, on speakerphone during business meetings more than 20 times, in order to sell “the brand.”
Mr. Archer believed scandal-plagued “Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it,” according to Mr. Comer’s account. “People would have been intimidated to mess with Burisma legally” because of the Biden connection, Mr. Comer says.
Mr. Archer also confirmed that Burisma executives put heavy pressure on Hunter to leverage his connections to handle an investigation into the company by former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Joe Biden has publicly taken credit for getting Mr. Shokin fired—based on claims that the prosecutor investigating corruption was himself corrupt.
Mr. Comer says Mr. Archer also told the committee that Joe Biden attended other Hunter business meetings in person—in Beijing and in Washington, D.C.—with Chinese and Russian businesspeople. This runs against President Biden’s claims that he never discussed those business dealings with his son.
Dan Goldman, a Democrat who heard the testimony, says Mr. Archer told the committee that the Bidens never discussed business on those calls, so the testimony was much ado about nothing. But it’s highly unlikely that Hunter wanted to talk with his father about the weather. He knew what he was selling, and we’ll see what else we learn as the House keeps looking.
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