A top Republican has slammed President Biden for trying to hide his involvement in his son’s business dealings after a new report that the president attended at least 24 phone calls with Hunter’s business associates.
“It’s so disturbing,” said House Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., on Fox & Friends Monday.
“What we found with the information that has come out from whistleblowers – for example, the WhatsApp message that apparently Hunter Biden sat next to his father waiting for a call from a Chinese foreign business partner and said, “we are here, looking forward to your call.”
“It shows that in fact President Biden not only knew about his son’s business dealings, but then backtracked by saying he is not involved in his son’s business dealings.”
‘This is like the [IRS] whistleblowers flagged,” Smith continued.
Last week, two IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, testified under oath that the uncovered WhatsApp messages between Hunter and a Chinese energy official appear to be evidence of a “direct contradiction to what President Biden said about his non-involvement in Hunter’s overseas business dealings.”
Devon Archer, far left, is playing golf in the Hamptons with Hunter Biden (far right) and Joe Biden (next to Hunter). Archer is expected to testify that Hunter put Joe on the phone with clients
The president’s son was staying at the guest house at Biden’s Delaware home when he wrote a letter via WhatsApp to Communist Party official Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, threatening him to follow his “orders.”
‘I’m sitting here with my father and we would like to know why the agreement that was made has not been kept.’ Hunter wrote in 2017 according to testimony from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley released by the GOP.
Hunter then said, according to the testimony, “Tell the warden I want to fix this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight.”
According to the 2017 conversation, Zang also said he wants to convey “his best regards to you, Jim and VP.”
Hunter’s top business partner Devon Archer, 48, was subpoenaed on June 12 by the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Hunter’s businesses and whether he and other members of the Biden family acted improperly with their connections.
Archer has canceled his scheduled statements three times so far, but still expects to testify before the committee this week.
On Sunday, The New York Post reported that Archer is expected to tell the committee that Joe has spoken to Hunter’s business associates, including Burisma’s, at least 24 times.
Archer and another business partner, Tony Bobulinski, have both said that Joe Biden offered short greetings and platitudes rather than concrete agreements with Hunter’s business partners.
But Archer’s testimony will further challenge the White House’s insistence that Joe Biden never had any knowledge or involvement in his wayward son’s business affairs.
“We very much look forward to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has met with Joe Biden with Hunter Biden’s foreign business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone,” said James Comer, a Republican for Kentucky who serves as the committee chair.
Senator Ted Cruz called the revelations “magnificent” in a tweet Monday.
Joe Biden, vice president from 2009 to 2017, spoke with Hunter’s partners at Ukrainian energy company Burisma in December 2015.
Hunter and Archer were in Dubai, Archer will reportedly testify, and Hunter told other Burisma board members that they could speak to his father on the phone.
Hunter put his father in touch with Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior manager of Burisma, and as they gathered on the phone, Hunter told Joe that the Ukrainian businessmen “need our support.”
Archer is also expected to say that Joe Biden only spoke vaguely during the brief phone call to greet the two businessmen.
Hunter and Joe Biden are pictured together in April 2016
James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and Jason Smith (right) at the IRS whistleblower hearing
Comer and the committee are interested in the disclosures because at the time, Joe Biden served as President Barack Obama’s “point person” on Ukraine and U.S. efforts to deter corruption.
Burisma was under investigation for corruption, and in an email to Hunter and Archer in November 2015 — a month before the call — Pozharskyi demanded that they use their leverage to “close” the criminal investigation against Burisma, The New York Post reported.
Archer will also tell the committee, the newspaper said, about a dinner at a restaurant in the French capital, where Hunter took out his phone and called his father, trying to impress potential investors.
Archer will say that Hunter would introduce his father over speakerphone in about one in four conversations.
At other times, he spoke to his father without telling him he was on speakerphone – leaving open the possibility that Joe was unaware that his son was trading his access.
Joe Biden is known to speak regularly with his son and his grandchildren: Hunter Biden told CBS News in 2021 that they speak every night.
A close associate of Archer told the New York Post that he testifies about his time with Hunter because he believes it is his “civic duty.”
Archer was sentenced to one year and one day in prison in February 2022 for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and several investment advisory clients out of tens of millions of dollars, in connection with the issuance of $60 million in bonds.
Hunter Biden is seen on the balcony of the White House on July 4 along with First Lady Jill and First Son Hunter
Archer’s associate said he thought the fraud case was a way to silence him.
He has “nothing to hide, no revenge to take, nor to protect anyone but his family and he feels enthralled by the absurd fake” [fraud] business to remain silent,” the source told The Post.
“On a forum where he has immunity, he can at least speak the truth.”
Last week, IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler both said Hunter Biden had received preferential treatment from the Justice Department.
Hunter agreed to a plea of lying on his tax returns. He also struck a deal over allegations of lying on a gun license application: He said he wasn’t taking drugs, and has since admitted to being addicted.