Devon Archer says Joe Biden was “The Brand.” The former Biden business associate used that phrase in July 2023 to describe how the then-vice president’s name was deployed to send “signals” of power, access and influence, and how that helped bring money to the Biden family from foreign sources.
The House Oversight Committee has since gathered that claim and others into a list of more than 20 examples that it says show Biden’s involvement in his family’s business dealings. The committee’s account is a Republican one, and it says Democrats and their allies in the media have ignored the evidence.
Calls, dinners and a shared residence
Archer, according to the committee, knew of at least 20 occasions when Biden, then vice president, spoke by speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates. Democrats, the committee says, would have Americans believe those calls were about the weather.
The list also records meals. In February 2014, Biden dined with oligarchs from Russia and Kazakhstan who, the committee says, sent millions of dollars to Hunter Biden and his partners. In April 2015 he dined with associates that included Vadym Pozharsky, a Ukrainian executive at Burisma. At that point the Ukrainian prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, was investigating the company for corruption.
In 2015 Biden also hosted Hunter Biden, Archer and other associates at the vice president’s official residence. They discussed who should fill the top seat at the United Nations. The Kazakhstani official who wanted that post was at both dinners at Café Milano.
The committee adds that Biden had coffee in Beijing with Jonathan Li of BHR, a Chinese associate of his son, and wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s daughter.
Burisma and the China deal
One entry concerns an email, sent under the pseudonym “Robert L. Peters,” that told Biden about a 2016 call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Hunter Biden, then on the Burisma board, was copied.
Another dates to December 4, 2015. Eric Schwerin, an associate, sent Kate Bedingfield in the vice president’s office suggested quotes for press questions about Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma. She answered: “VP signed off on this[.]” Archer told the committee that after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai that evening, Hunter Biden “called D.C.” about pressure the company wanted him to ease.
The CEFC deal gets several entries. In May 2017, associate James Gilliar emailed Hunter Biden and others on how to split profits from the venture with CEFC, a Chinese energy company the committee links to the Chinese Communist Party. Gilliar indicated Joe Biden would get 10 percent, and the committee says Tony Bobulinski confirmed that figure. On May 20, 2017, Gilliar told Bobulinski: “Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u are face to face[.]”
A September 21, 2017, email has Hunter Biden calling his father his business partner and supplying Joe Biden’s personal cell number for anyone wanting confirmation. On July 30, 2017, according to the committee, Hunter Biden pressed Chinese associates for money and said his father was sitting beside him.
Travel, Mexico and the FBI form
The committee says Biden took his son on Air Force Two to at least 15 countries. It also reports that Hunter Biden’s business associates visited the White House more than 80 times during Biden’s vice presidency.
On Mexico, the list cites a February 2014 report of a White House meeting with two of Hunter’s Mexican associates. A report from October 2015 describes a video call Hunter arranged with his father and Mexican partners. The next month Biden hosted those partners and an associate, Jeff Cooper, at the vice president’s residence. In February 2016 Biden let his son and Cooper fly to Mexico on Air Force 2 to meet partners.
The committee also points to an FBI form dated June 30, 2020, FD-1023, which contains an allegation that Biden took part in an extortion scheme and was paid $5 million in exchange for certain actions. The committee describes this as an allegation.
The final entries are Hunter’s own words. In a September 2011 email, he wrote that his value to Chinese investors “has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my last name.” In 2019 he texted his daughter that “unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
Sources
- Evidence of Joe Biden’s Involvement in His Family’s Influence Peddling Schemes – United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- Hunter Biden
Sources
- Evidence of Joe Biden's Involvement in His Family's Influence …
- Hunter Biden laptop controversy – Wikipedia
