Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) has called on House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) to release the full transcript of the committee’s closed-door interview with Devon Archer, a former business partner of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“I think anyone who reads that transcript—and I was there, so I can tell you what happened—would come away from that believing that Joe Biden had nothing to do with Hunter Biden’s business dealings, derived no benefit from it, received no money, and did not know about anything that Hunter Biden was doing, nor did he ever discuss it with Hunter Biden or the business associates,” Mr. Goldman added in his interview with host Anderson Cooper.
Mr. Goldman also said calls between the elder Biden and his son increased dramatically around 2015, as the then-vice president’s other son, Beau Biden, was dying from cancer.
“Joe Biden was calling his son to check on him, and Hunter Biden was calling his dad to check on him. It had nothing to do with business, and that is the sum and substance of what the testimony was,” Mr. Goldman told reporters outside the hearing on Monday afternoon.
After the hearing, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) agreed that the phone conversations that Mr. Archer described were mostly “pleasantries,” but insisted there was more significance to the interactions than Mr. Goldman was letting on. According to Mr. Biggs, Mr. Archer testified that Hunter Biden brought the value of the “Biden brand” to a Ukrainian gas company they worked for called Burisma, and that the gas company “would have gone under without the participation of the Biden brand.”
Joe Was the ‘Biden Brand’: GOP
Mr. Comer issued a statement on Monday saying Mr. Archer confirmed that Joe Biden was “’the brand' that his son sold around the world,” and that his interactions with his son’s business partners included both phone conversations and in-person interactions.Mr. Archer and the younger Biden worked together on several business ventures, including work for Burisma. Following Mr. Archer’s testimony, Mr. Comer assessed that in December of 2015, Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and executive Vadym Pozharski pressured the younger Biden to leverage his contacts in Washington D.C. to bring about an end to a corruption investigation against the company by Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Mr. Comer said Mr. Zlochevsky, Mr. Pozharski, and the younger Biden stepped away and “called D.C.” at one point to discuss the matter.
While Mr. Comer asserted that Burisma executives wanted Mr. Shokin fired, Mr. Goldman said Mr. Archer believed the move to oust Mr. Shokin was counterproductive. Mr. Goldman told reporters that Mr. Archer testified that Burisma believed they had Mr. Shokin “in their pocket, [that] they had control over him.”
“The only evidence we have right now of any official action by President Biden in connection to Hunter Biden’s business interests is bad for Hunter Biden’s business,” Mr. Goldman concluded of the decision to oust the Ukrainian prosecutor.
Mr. Goldman claimed the then-vice president’s actions in ousting Mr. Shokin exhibited “integrity” in the face of his son’s business dealings. Mr. Goldman said that after Mr. Shokin was removed from office, Hunter Biden tried “to get credit with Burisma on behalf of actions that his father took that were completely unrelated.”