Hunter Biden sold ‘illusion of access’ to his father, former business partner tells Congress

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden’s former business partner insisted in testimony to Congress Monday that President Joe Biden was never directly involved in their financial dealings, though Hunter would often put his famous father on speakerphone to impress clients and business associates.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee conducted a more than-five hour interview with Devon Archer as part of its expanding congressional inquiry into the Biden family businesses as the GOP explores a potential impeachment inquiry into the president.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers inside the closed-door interview said Archer testified that over the span of 10 years, Hunter Biden put his father on the phone around 20 times while in the company of associates but “never once spoke about any business dealings.”

New York Rep. Dan Goldman, who was representing Democrats inside the room, told reporters after the interview that Archer testified that Hunter sold the “illusion of access” to his father by taking credit for things his father did as vice president that he had no part in.

But Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican member of the Oversight Committee, came out of the interview saying that testimony implicated the president directly. “I think we should do an impeachment inquiry,” the Arizona lawmaker told reporters.

Biggs, reading from his notes, said Archer testified that the Ukrainian gas company “Burisma would have gone out of business sooner if the Biden brand had not been invoked. People would be intimidated to legally mess with Burisma because of the Biden family brand.”

Focusing on that idea, Rep. James Comer, the GOP chairman of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement late Monday that “Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family.”