Devon Archer, 48, Hunter Biden's former best friend and the director of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma alongside him, is set to challenge the Biden family narrative in testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
Archer is expected to say that while Joe Biden has claimed he did not speak with his son about Hunter's foreign dealings, Hunter Biden put his father on the phone with foreign business partners or investors around two dozen times as they discussed business.
A close associate of Archer's said he was testifying out of his obligation to his "civic duty" and that Archer has "nothing to hide, no revenge to enact nor anyone to protect other than his family and he feels he has been handcuffed by the absurdly bogus [fraud] case into remaining silent. In a forum where he has immunity he can at least start to speak truth."
The associate went on to say that Archer's family has allegedly been subject to death threats and warnings to "keep your mouth shut" since it was revealed he would testify.
House Oversight Committee Chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has welcomed the chance to hear from Archer, stating, “We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone.”
Archer is due to provide detailed information from meetings he attended with Hunter. One such meeting occurred on Dec. 4, 2015, in Dubai, when Archer and Hunter Biden had dinner with the Burisma board and were then contacted later at another hotel by senior Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi, who requested Hunter talk to Burisma's owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Archer will report that Hunter Biden called his father and put him on speaker, then introducing Pozharskyi and Zlochevsky to him, adding that they “need our support.”
Those present at the meeting were aware that Joe Biden had previously singled out Zlochevsky in a speech about corruption in Odessa only a few months prior. Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin had also been investigating Burisma - prompting Pozharskyi to pressure Hunter, as emails on Hunter’s laptop revealed. By February 2016 Shokin had seized property belonging to Zlochevsky, who was living in Dubai.
In March 2016, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid to Ukraine, claiming Shokin wasn’t investigating corruption. Following Biden's threats, Shokin was fired and Biden later boasted to the Council on Foreign Relations, “I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b****. He got fired.”
Archer is also expected to testify about two dinners in Washington, D.C., that Hunter organized for Joe Biden in which he met several of Hunter’s foreign business partners.
Hunter's former business partner Tony Bobulinski has also stated that Hunter Biden would often get his father on the phone during business calls, and that Joe Biden played a key role in his son's global influence peddling.
The testimony of Archer and Bobulinski is set to offer new insight into the relationship between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, and how the Biden family benefited from foreign business dealings. It could also call into question Joe Biden's protestations that he did not speak to his son regarding Hunter's foreign business dealings.