The House Oversight and Reform Committee published the full transcript of the Monday’s Devon Archer interview, in which Archer testified Hunter Biden had President Joe Biden on the phone twenty times with business associates. He also said that Burisma officials didn’t intend to have to see a Ukrainian prosecutor dismissed because they believed that they had his “under control.”
Archer was a part of Hunter Biden for the Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm prior to when both became directors of Burisma which is a Ukrainian energy company in 2014.
Here is the complete transcript of Archer’s testimonies:
Burisma officials didn’t want Ukraine’s then prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who was accused of conducting an investigation into Burisma and was removed from his post since they thought they had the former prosecutor “under control,” according Archer’s testimony.
“Whoever the next person that was brought in was — you know, the fact that he was — this is the total, this is the narrative spun to me, that Shokin being fired was a — was not good, because he was like under control as relates to Mykola [Zlochevsky],” Archer was a witness.
This is in contradiction to claims that were made in an FBI-created FD-1023 tips sheet where an unnamed FBI informant claimed Zlochevsky who was the boss of Burisma was the one who paid Hunter Biden and his father $5 million in order to force to force the Ukrainian government to dismiss Shokin. Archer claimed in his statement that he did not know of any $5 million payments to anyone Biden.
Archer also admitted in court that Hunter Biden had his father as Vice President at the time, Joe Biden, on speakerphone to business associates several of times during the course of Archer and his 10 years of business partnership and that Burisma could have been thrown out of business but because of being associated with the “Biden brand” being attached to the business.
“My sole opinion is that I believe Burisma might have been out of business if it did not have the brand that is associated with it. It’s just my solely honest opinion,” Archer said in his testimony. “The ability to maneuver around D.C. that they were in a position to almost be in media cycles. I’m sure that saved their position perspective of an endurance standpoint.”
He added his belief that”the “Biden brand” attached to the company was a factor that made the people “intimidated to mess with them” from a legal perspective. He also said that the “Biden brand” referred mostly to Joe Biden because he “brought the most value to the brand.”
“Well I believe there there were specific goals that Burisma was trying to achieve. A lot of it is about opening doors worldwide and in D.C. In my view, I believe that this was one of the goals understand — and clearly, having those doors open and then sending the appropriate signals, you know that would allow Burisma to keep its current business and be prosperous,” Archer testified.
Archer added the fact that Hunter Biden would not “overtly” declare what like his dad could have done to Burisma. He would rather use “the brand” as a method to gain leverage over the business.
In one incident, Archer testified that in 2014, he Hunter Biden, and two Burisma executives, Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharskyi were in the Four Seasons hotel in Dubai drinking drinks after an Burisma group meeting. Zlochevsky as per Archer said to Hunter Biden that Burisma needed “help from the United States government” to handle the pressures the company was facing from Shokin the prosecutor of Ukraine who was accused of conducting an investigation into Burisma visa issues as well as issues with the freezing of assets. Archer was then absent and Hunter Biden was told to contact “D.C.”
When Archer claimed he wasn’t “privy” to the call, Pozharskyi told him that Hunter Biden called his father who, at the time, was vice president. However, he did not confirm that in the testimony.
The next day, Joe Biden was in Ukraine warning to stop American assistance to the country until Shokin was dismissed.