Halfway through Devon Archer’s closed-door testimony before a House committee probing the Biden family’s foreign business deals, a Democrat emerged to say there’s no evidence President Biden was involved in the deals.
Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat who previously worked as the top Trump impeachment lawyer in the House, said he listened to Archer’s testimony and said it proved Mr. Biden was not involved.
“There is not a shred of a single conflict of interest of President Biden ever doing anything in connection or in relations to undermine his business ventures,” Mr. Goldman said.
Archer, who was convicted of securities fraud and is facing a yearlong prison sentence, told investigators Mr. Biden called into his son’s meetings but did not talk business.
“It was just to say hello … and there was nothing related to his business dealings,” Mr. Goldman said Archer told lawmakers. “It’s kind of a preposterous premise to think that a father should not say hello to people that the son is at dinner with and that is literally all the evidence is.”
No Republican spoke to reporters about Archer’s testimony.
Hunter Biden summoned his father numerous times while arranging lucrative business deals with foreign business partners, both by phone and in person, in what GOP lawmakers suspect was a bid to leverage his father’s power for millions of dollars in profits that were also shared with Mr. Biden and other family members.
Mr. Goldman scoffed at criticism of Mr. Biden phoning in or popping into his son’s meetings.
“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately 20 times over the course of a 10-year relationship, Hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people. And they never once spoke about any business dealings,” he said.
Democrats say the GOP’s investigation is politically motivated and aimed at damaging the president ahead of the 2024 election.
“Unless there’s any evidence, and we have seen none, and we have heard a lot of accusations and we have seen no evidence somehow connecting President Biden to anything that his private citizen son is doing, then we need to move on and this investigation is a complete waste of time,” Mr. Goldman said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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