According to evidence Devon Archer, the first son’s former best friend, is set to give before Congress this week, Hunter Biden would use a speakerphone to call in his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, into meetings with his foreign business associates.
The House Oversight Committee will hear testimony from Archer, 48, who faces prison time for his part in a $60 million bond scam, about meetings Joe Biden attended in person or over speakerphone. Hunter would call his father to introduce him to potential investors or foreign business partners.
“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,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee chairman.
One such meeting took place in Dubai at the end of the evening of Friday, December 4, 2015, following a board meeting of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, whose director salary was $83,000 per month.
Archer, who was also a director, will likely testify that he and Hunter went to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach to have a drink with one of Hunter’s pals after having dinner with the Burisma board at the Burj Al Arab Hotel.
While they were sitting outside at the bar, Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior Burisma executive, phoned to ask where they were because Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, needed to speak to Hunter urgently.
Pozharskyi asked Hunter: “Can you ring your dad?” shortly after the two Ukrainians joined Hunter and Archer at the Four Seasons pub. It was Friday early afternoon in Washington, DC at the time.
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Then Hunter called his father, put him on speaker, set the phone down on the table, and presented the Ukrainians to Joe Biden as “Nikolai and Vadym.”
Additionally, he stated that the leaders of Burisma “need our support.”
Archer is anticipated to testify that on the brief call and other such interactions with Hunter’s foreign business partners, Vice President Biden greeted the Ukrainians but said little more than general niceties.
Investigators from Congress are anticipated to look into the circumstances behind Zlochevsky’s urgent request to speak with Joe Biden on the phone.
They will take note of the context, which was that on December 9, 2015, the then-vice president, who served as the Obama administration’s point person for Ukraine, was scheduled to fly to Kyiv to speak to the Rada about the “poison of cronyism, corruption, and kleptocracy.”
On September 24, 2015, ten weeks before to the call, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt delivered a speech denouncing corruption in Odessa and singled out Zlochevsky by name.
At the time, Burisma was being investigated by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin for corruption. Two months later, on February 2, 2016, Shokin would seize four homes in Kyiv, two parcels of land, and a Rolls-Royce that belonged to Zlochevsky, who was living in exile in Dubai.
After Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US help to Ukraine, Shokin was removed one month later.
