On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee released the full transcript of Devon Archer’s testimony to Congress, providing new information into Joe Biden’s involvement in his son Hunter’s business dealings.
As previously reported by the Gateway Pundit, Archer appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Monday to testify about the “Biden Crime Family.”
Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019, during which time the company was under investigation for corruption.
The transcript reveals some new information that has not been previously reported. Specifically, Archer claimed that Joe Biden, referred to as “the Big Guy,” was the entire brand behind the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and that the firm would have gone out of business without him.
Archer states Burisma would have gone out of business if not for THE BRAND. pic.twitter.com/cKvxsCOXmN
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 3, 2023
“My only thought is that I think Burisma would have gone out of business if it didn’t have the brand attached to it. That’s my, like, only honest opinion,” he said under interrogation from Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY).
“I think that’s why it was able to survive as long as it did,” he added.
“Well, I don’t understand. How does that have an impact?” Goldman asked.
“Well, the capabilities to navigate DC that they were able to, you know, basically be in the news cycle. And I think that preserved them from a, you know, from a longevity standpoint,” Archer responded.
“But how would that work?” the Democrat asked.
“Because people would be intimidated to mess with them,” said Archer.
New York Post reporter Miranda Devine wrote, “Another Dan Goldman own goal. He’s 3 for 3 now. This time in his Devon Archer “interrogation” he inadvertently gets Archer to say that part of Hunter’s value to Burisma was that “people would be intimidated to mess with them…legally” with the son of the US VP on the board. And so it turned out, as the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma corruption, was fired on the orders of Hunter’s dad.”
Another Dan Goldman own goal. He’s 3 for 3 now. This time in his Devon Archer “interrogation” he inadvertently gets Archer to say that part of Hunter’s value to Burisma was that “people would be intimidated to mess with them…legally” with the son of the US VP on the board. And… pic.twitter.com/CxLBKPnneE
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) August 3, 2023
The testimony also included details about the transfer of $3.5 million wired by former first lady of Moscow Yelena Baturina in February 2014, which was transferred to a firm co-owned by Archer and Hunter Biden.
On Monday, Devon Archer testified that Joe Biden met with Russia’s Yelena Baturina, who later invested into $40 million into Hunter Biden’s real estate ventures. Baturina also paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in “consulting fees.”
Furthermore, Archer revealed that Joe Biden had more than a casual interaction with Jonathan Li.
According to testimony from Archer, Li was the CEO and founder of Bohai Sea Industrial Fund, a Chinese private equity firm that partnered with Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Archer testified that Li was interested in expanding his business interests in the United States, and that he met with several large sponsors, including Blackstone and Apollo, to explore potential partnerships. Archer did mention that Hunter Biden and Li had a personal relationship and were friends.
Jonathan Li did meet with then VP-Joe Biden and had a coffee during a trip to Beijing, according to Archer.
However, the exact nature of the meeting is not clear. Archer testified that he did not witness the meeting, but that he believed it was a brief, informal encounter, possibly just a “handshake.”
“Jonathan Li and President Biden had coffee. So it might’ve been, like, after they had coffee, and he was saying hello, so there was, like, some familiarity,” Devon said.
“I wasn’t there, so I’m not — I don’t — I just — I read the reporting and heard from Hunter and Jonathan. So [Hunter] might’ve been saying, “Oh, I’m with Jonathan Li again. Remember, you met him in Beijing,” Devon added.
The transcript also shed light on two previously undisclosed dinners at Café Milano, an upscale restaurant in Georgetown, featuring Joe Biden, Hunter, and some of their Eastern European patrons. The April 2015 gathering had been reported previously, but Archer testified that there was another dinner in spring 2014.
The first dinner included Joe and Hunter Biden, Baturina, Kazakhstani businessman Kenes Rakishev – who wired $142,300 used on a luxury car for Hunter Biden per New York Post – and former Kazakhstani Prime Minister Karim Massimov.
The second meal, which occurred in April 2015, had a different lineup, including a Burisma executive and a Greek Orthodox priest. Archer’s testimony contradicted previous reporting by the Washington Post that Joe Biden only spoke briefly at the dinner, saying it was “a regular dinner” and “that’s not correct reporting.”
More from New York Post:
Baturina and another Russian billionaire with whom Hunter partnered on US real estate shopping, former military contractor Vladimir Yevtushenkov, remain unsanctioned by President Biden, who has imposed stiff sanctions on Moscow’s business elite in response to last year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“There was no business-deals specifics discussed ever at any of these things, but it was — it was a nice, you know, conversation,” said Archer, who said in an interview with Tucker Carlson that was published Wednesday that Hunter sold his ability to navigate the “regulatory environment” in Washington, which in practice means “selling access, at the end of the day.”
Archer ultimately did not provide significant new information on a bombshell FBI informant file released in full last month after mounting controversy in which a paid informant said Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky in 2016 said he paid $5 million apiece in bribes to Hunter and Joe Biden in exchange for the elder Biden pushing to oust Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
But Archer offered a counter-theory that Zlochevsky considered the bribe to be the approximate amount he had paid Hunter Biden and himself for their service with Burisma.
“I would assume he’s probabl[y] talking about me and Hunter, but I don’t know,” Archer initially said before suggesting later in the interview that Zlochevsky was “sending a signal.”
“In Ukraine, in Russia,” he said, “they brag about how much — they brag about bigger bribes than they actually give.”
