Devon Archer, the former Biden family business associate set to provide closed-door testimony to congressional investigators on Monday, will likely be in no mood to shield the first family from incrimination in shady foreign deals.
Archer, 49, is staring down a yearlong prison sentence for securities fraud. He thought Hunter Biden and President Biden could have protected him from conviction.
Messages uncovered on Hunter Biden’s discarded laptop computer show his close partnership with Archer unraveling in March 2019 as Archer tried to overturn his conviction and sentence of one year plus a day in prison.
Archer sent a series of texts asking Hunter Biden, “Why did your dad’s administration appointees arrest me and try to put me in jail? Just curious. Some of our partners are asking out here.”
Federal law enforcement arrested Archer in May 2016, when Vice President Biden was concluding his second term in the Obama administration. Archer and six others were charged with defrauding the Oglala Sioux Tribe of more than $60 million and using the money “to pay for their own personal expenses, homes, cars, travel, and jewelry,” according to court records.
Before his arrest, Archer was one of Hunter Biden’s closest business associates. He helped the Biden family secure millions of dollars from deals involving Ukraine, China and Russia.
Archer met with Vice President Biden in the White House and was pictured alongside him on the golf course. He served with Hunter Biden on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, which allegedly paid the two men millions of dollars to obtain the vice president’s help in shooing off a prosecutor investigating the company.
His close connections did not spare him prosecution and conviction.
Archer’s 2019 texts to Hunter Biden show his frustration and fear about his legal problems and his willingness to invoke the suspicious business deals that yielded millions of dollars in profits for as many as 10 Biden family members.
“Why would they try and ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family’s side step in and at least try to help me,” Archer wrote to Hunter Biden. “I don’t get it. And I’m depressed. Bunch of these Asians getting in my head and asking me the same so just curious what should I answer.”
Archer may have been referring to executives from the now-defunct Chinese energy firm CEFC and associated State Energy HK Ltd., which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Company officials provided millions of dollars to the Biden family and a small group of business associates, including Archer, who helped facilitate the deals.
House investigators are eager to talk with Archer about payments the Bidens received from Chinese nationals and other foreign entities, as well as a paid FBI informant’s claim that Hunter Biden and Vice President Biden were each paid a $5 million bribe by Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky.
Archer is poised to provide key information to help investigators piece together the extent of Mr. Biden’s involvement in his son’s business deals, which would contradict the president’s claims that he knew nothing about them.
Archer is expected to tell House investigators that Hunter Biden patched his father by phone into the middle of his business deals on as many as two dozen occasions.
One media outlet reported that Archer is in hiding after receiving threats. His New York-based attorney, Matthew Schwartz, did not respond to a request for a comment about the reported threats.
In a statement released last week, Mr. Schwartz said, “There have been many leaks and much speculation about Archer’s potential statement to the Oversight Committee, but next week, Archer will get to speak for himself.”
Archer, a nephew of the late Massachusetts crime family boss Whitey Bulger, has remained out of prison while appealing his conviction, but he may not be free for long.
In June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Archer’s effort to have the conviction and his sentence thrown out.
Federal prosecutors sent a letter Saturday asking Judge Ronnie Abrams to set a date and a time for Archer to surrender and start his prison term.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, raised questions about the timing of the letter on the Fox News Channel program “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“It’s odd that it was issued on a Saturday, and it’s odd that it’s right before he’s scheduled to come in to have an opportunity to speak in front of the House oversight committee and tell the American people the truth about what really went on with Burisma,” he said.
In Archer’s 2019 text message exchange with Hunter Biden over his legal problems, the president’s son responded with a condescending diatribe that isn’t likely to engender Archer’s loyalty as he testifies before House lawmakers while facing federal prison.
Archer will testify in the wake of the collapse of an unusual sweetheart plea deal that federal prosecutors offered to Hunter Biden. A judge rejected the deal, which would have spared Hunter Biden any jail time for tax fraud and lying on a gun background check form.
In the 2019 text message exchange, Hunter Biden told Archer that his family couldn’t rescue him from prosecution “because there’s no connection or control” between the Justice Department and the Biden vice presidency.
“It’s democracy. Three co equal branches of government,” he lectured Archer. “You are always more vulnerable to the overreach of one of those Co equal branches when you are in power. Every presidents family is held to a higher standard is a target. It’s the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world. It’s why our democracy remains viable. It’s unfair at times but in the end the system of justice usually works and like you we are redeemed and the truth prevails. The unfairness to us allows for the greater good.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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