A former business associate of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is appealing a separate ruling to the Supreme Court after he was convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe.
Mr. Archer in 2018 was sentenced to more than one year in prison by a New York grand jury after he was convicted for fraudulently issuing and selling tens of millions of tribal bonds. Hunter Biden has no connection to the case.
“This Court should grant review to clarify this important and recurring principle of criminal procedure to ensure that clear, unwaived, and fundamental errors do not go uncorrected,” his attorneys wrote in the filing, which has not been put on the Supreme Court’s docket yet.
Other than the year-long prison sentence, Mr. Archer was ordered to give up $15.7 million and pay another $43.4 million in restitution to the victims. If he is successful, Mr. Archer could avoid serving out his prison term.
After his 2018 conviction, a judge ordered a new trial for Mr. Archer after having concerns about evidence that might show he’s innocent. An appeals court, however, ruled that the decision was improper and reinstated his conviction in 2020, which Mr. Archer is seeking to challenge.
“The Second Circuit’s decision is wrong. It is contrary to the text of Rule 33, and it takes from district courts a much-needed tool to avoid miscarriages of justice in the most extreme cases,” his attorneys wrote in court filings to the high court.
“Although different courts of appeals give district courts more or less discretion to reweigh the trial evidence under Rule 33, Petitioner’s appeal would have been decided differently—and correctly—by any other court,” the filing continued.
Mr. Archer became a public figure earlier this year after he testified in front of House lawmakers in a closed-door session about the younger Biden’s overseas business deals after he partnered with Hunter Biden on deals in Ukraine and China.
He stated that Hunter Biden was retained to serve on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company, because it would keep the company “in the news cycle,' adding that I think that preserved them from a, you know, from a longevity standpoint,” according to a transcript of his testimony.
Because Mr. Biden was on the firm’s board, “people would be intimidated to mess with them,” he told lawmakers at the time.
The transcript also showed that Mr. Archer testified that Hunter Biden placed his father, who was then the vice president, on his speakerphone during meetings with business associates. Mr. Archer testified he was not aware of President Biden committing any wrongdoing in connection to the young Biden’s deals, which Republicans say were shady and evidence of an influence-peddling scheme on behalf of the Biden family.
Mr. Archer also recalled that there were two dinners at a Washington, D.C., restaurant that included then-Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden’s business associates in Eastern Europe. One dinner was held in the spring of 2014 and the other in April 2015.
“[Joe Biden] entered the room and shook everybody’s hand,” Mr. Archer recalled. “I don’t remember the conversation. I just remember that he was—he came to dinner, and we ate and kind of talked about the world, I guess, and the weather, and then everybody—everybody left,” he said.
He continued: “As far as—I know you’re probably going to ask, you know, how much time. I don’t—it wasn’t five minutes; it wasn’t three hours.”
Meanwhile, the younger Biden last month filed a lawsuit against an aide to former President Donald Trump, Garrett Ziegler, accusing him of violating California’s computer fraud laws. It claimed Mr. Ziegler and others allegedly obtained information from the laptop and put out “tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings” on the Internet.
The Department of Justice has not issued a comment on the Supreme Court appeal.
