Release of Transcript From Comer and Jordan’s Own Witness Proves Once Again That They Have NO Evidence On President Biden But That Didn’t Stop Them From Lying About It On TV
Today, MAGA Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a transcript of the testimony of Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden. While Archer’s interview has been hyped as a blockbuster moment for the MAGA investigation against President Biden, his testimony actually pointed in the opposite direction, demonstrating that James Comer and Jim Jordan still have no evidence to support their conspiracy theories. It was another embarrassing episode for these failed political stunts. The transcript only further confirms that President Biden never engaged in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from playing up his appearance as bombshell testimony and continuing to lie to protect Donald Trump – even though Comer himself couldn’t even be bothered to show up for the interview. But don’t just take our word for it:
NBC News: Hunter Biden Business Associate Testifies He Has No Knowledge Of Wrongdoing By Joe Biden. “Hunter Biden’s business associate, Devon Archer, testified before the House Oversight Committee that he has no knowledge that then-Vice President Joe Biden changed U.S. foreign policy to help his son and that he’s not aware of any wrongdoing by the elder Biden, according to transcripts of his testimony released Thursday. ‘I have no basis to know if he altered policy to benefit his son. … I have no knowledge,’ Archer testified in the closed-door hearing earlier this week. One of the GOP’s key witnesses in its investigation into the Bidens, Archer told lawmakers that Hunter Biden repeatedly used the Joe Biden ‘brand’ to protect Burisma ‘so people wouldn’t mess with them’ legally and politically. But he also said that he did not disagree with the conclusion that Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Bursma [sic] had no effect on U.S. foreign policy. And Archer testified that he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden as it related to his son’s business dealings. ‘No, I’m not aware of any,’ Archer said.” [NBC News, 8/3/23]
CNN: Devon Archer Says Joe Biden Discussed ‘Nothing’ Important With Hunter Biden Business Associates, Transcript Shows. “Hunter Biden’s former business partner told lawmakers, throughout his nearly five hours of testimony earlier this week, that ‘nothing’ of importance was discussed the 20 times he recalled then-Vice President Joe Biden being placed on speaker phone during meetings with business partners, according to a full transcript of the closed-door interview released by House Oversight Committee Republicans on Thursday. Devon Archer also testified that he was not privy to any conversations between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in which they discussed how Joe Biden would take official actions on behalf of his son, nor did he have any knowledge of an alleged bribery scheme involving the former vice president. ‘There are touch points and contact points that I can’t deny that happened, but nothing of material was discussed,’ Archer told lawmakers earlier this week. ‘I have no basis to understand what his father and his conversations were about policy in Ukraine. But, as you can see, that seems pretty familiar, that, you know, he can’t influence it but take credit for it,’ Archer testified. Rather he said that Hunter Biden was giving the false impression to executives of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where he served as a board member, that he had influence over US policy.” [CNN, 8/3/23]
Washington Post: Devon Archer Said The Opposite Of What Republicans Claimed. “There was never a good reason to believe that the bribe allegation was legitimate, and Comer’s repeated claims about it have done enormous damage to his credibility. To have Devon Archer dismiss it certainly isn’t complete exoneration, but it is more evidence against the idea that it occurred. Consider the first words out of Comer’s mouth in that interview with Hannity: ‘Every day this bribery scandal becomes more credible.’ In fact, Archer’s testimony pointed precisely in the opposite direction. That’s the pattern here. Comer and Jordan and others hype claims of Joe Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s work only to see those claims collapse as more information is made public. Devon Archer’s testimony was hailed as a central breakthrough in implicating Joe Biden. Instead, it has a top ally of Hunter Biden stating under penalty of perjury that Joe Biden was not involved in Hunter Biden’s business and that Biden’s trip to Ukraine in 2015 was not centered on protecting Burisma at all. Very much contrary to what those leading Republicans implied on Fox News.” [Washington Post, 8/3/23]
HuffPost: Star Witness Undercuts Republican Corruption Case Against Joe Biden. “A top Republican claimed this week that a former business associate of the president’s son witnessed Hunter Biden being told to call Washington and get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired. It turns out that’s not what happened at all. The former business partner, Devon Archer, spoke to lawmakers for several hours during a closed-door deposition on Monday, which Republicans billed as a major development in their quest to connect President Joe Biden to his son’s foreign business deals. Archer sat on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that also employed Hunter Biden. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Tuesday during an interview on Fox News that Archer revealed Burisma asked Biden to get his dad’s help with a troublesome Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin. ‘We learned this week that Devon Archer said that Hunter Biden was told that he had to call Washington and get help and get that prosecutor, Shokin, fired,” Comer said. Under pressure from Democrats, Comer released a full transcript of the Archer interview on Thursday ― and it totally contradicts his statement on Fox News.” [HuffPost, 8/3/23]
Raw Story: Transcript Of GOP Witness’ ‘Bombshell’ Testimony Shows Hunter Biden’s Calls To Dad Were About ‘Family’ And ‘Fishing’. “Witness testimony that Republicans claimed was “bombshell” evidence of President Joe Biden’s involvement in a bribery scheme fails to show the president had any knowledge of the scheme, a transcript shows. For months now, House Republicans, led by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-KY), have been pursuing a theory that Biden was involved in a bribery scheme with his son Hunter to sell access and favors from the U.S. government during the Obama administration, particularly involving the Burisma energy company in Ukraine. At various points, they have also tried to claim Biden had a top prosecutor in Ukraine fired for investigating Burisma, which fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked. This week, Republicans held a hearing with Devon Archer, a convicted tax cheat who once worked with Hunter, in the hope he would provide evidence of such a scheme – a hearing House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said would be “bombshell,” though he decided to skip attending it. In the transcript of this hearing, released on Thursday, Archer did back up the idea that Hunter was trying to benefit from his family name in his dealings with Burisma, and he agreed with questioning that “Hunter Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father,” and would “take credit” for actions of his father that he had no role in.” [Raw Story, 8/3/23]
Mediaite: GOP’s Hunter Biden Witness Claimed to His Knowledge Joe Biden Had ‘No Involvement’ With Burisma: Transcript. “The House Oversight Committee released the transcript of its recent questioning of former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer on Monday. Archer was interviewed by both Republicans and Democrats on the committee on Monday and in the days since each side has released conflicting accounts regarding the implications of Archer’s testimony on GOP allegations of corruption regarding the Bidens. […] White House Spokesman Ian Sams tweeted out, ‘House Republicans have finally released the transcript of their own witness’ testimony — and guess what? He confirms President Biden was not involved in his son’s business.’ Sams then shared a section of the transcript, which included: Q: ‘Did you have any knowledge of Joe Biden having any involvement with Burisma?’ A: ‘No.’ Q: ‘No involvement of Joe — A: ‘No’” [Mediaite, 8/3/23]
The Independent: House Oversight Chair Didn’t Show Up For Interview He Hyped. “The chairman of the House Oversight Committee didn’t bother spending a single minute listening to testimony from a former business partner of Hunter Biden who he’d hyped up as a star witness who could prove many of the salacious allegations he and his Republican colleagues have levelled at the 46th president. […] [W]hile Congress is on recess until the end of August, his committee arranged the interview with Archer, who Mr Comer subpoenaed to testify in June. Archer repeatedly denied that President Biden spoke with any of his son’s business partners, but he did tell the panel that the president frequently was put on speakerphone by his son so he could sell the ‘illusion’ of access to his father.” [The Independent, 8/3/23]
The Daily Beast: James Comer Skipped His Panel’s Big Biden Probe Interview With Devon Archer. “When Rep. James Comer (R-KY) made the rounds on primetime conservative cable TV on Monday night, it was to divulge details of what Republicans called a bombshell day for their investigations into the Biden family. On Capitol Hill earlier that day, members of the House Oversight Committee privately interviewed Devon Archer, a longtime business partner of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. When Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Comer about ‘major takeaways’ from the interview, Comer delved into what Archer had told the committee, claiming that it had made an alleged Biden ‘bribery scandal… more credible.’ In another Monday night interview on Newsmax, host Greg Kelly claimed that Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY), who participated in the interview, looked ‘spooked’ afterward. ‘You were in the room,’ Kelly told Comer. ‘Are these guys recognizing that this is beyond their control now?’ ‘The walls are closing in on the Bidens,’ Comer responded. What Comer failed to mention was that he wasn’t actually in the room for his committee’s big interview with Archer. According to two sources familiar with the proceeding, Comer failed to show up in person on Capitol Hill, and he did not participate remotely. Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, has been the face of the GOP’s investigations into Hunter Biden, and he had hyped the Archer interview as perhaps the biggest moment yet in the party’s efforts to prove that the Bidens had leveraged their power and influence for personal gain. And yet, just like Comer, the vast majority of the Oversight panel’s membership did not attend either, with the interview taking place in Washington on the first Monday of the extended summer recess.” [The Daily Beast, 8/2/23]