Biden claim he never talked Hunter biz ‘categorically false’

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s claim that he had no role in his son’s foreign business dealings is “categorically false,” Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer said in an interview published Friday.

“He was aware of Hunter’s business, he met with Hunter’s business partners, I mean you found a letter that illustrates that he knew me,” Archer told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“That’s not factually right — and in the same breath … I don’t think Joe Biden has looked at a balance sheet or, you know, a cap[italization] table or what have you or any financial document, probably ever.”

Archer told Carlson that after he and Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings in the spring of 2014: “There was constant pressure to send signals to leverage all of his — his dad included, but the Biden brand, all of the DC insider relationships to help Burisma survive.”

“That was the idea [of Burisma hiring Hunter]. It was that ability to help on the geopolitical stage keep them out of trouble, keep them out of investigations, unfreeze assets, unsuccessfully unfreeze visas,” he added.

Archer also called the Biden family’s international consulting business “a diverse portfolio of opportunity” and said first brother James Biden’s role in Hunter’s dealings “really picked up” after Archer stepped away from their partnership around 2016 due to his own legal problems.

Hunter’s uncle “filled some void … of business companionship” during the first son’s later work in Romania and China, Archer said, at one point describing James as a “big Diet Mountain Dew guy.”

The Post’s October 2020 reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which exposed Joe Biden’s involvement in various shady foreign dealings, “was a real bummer,” Archer also told Carlson.

“It was an absolute shock that’s perpetuated this, you know, kind of nightmare that I’ve been living for the last couple years,” Archer said. “It’s just led to, you know, just incessant and never-ending media fodder that brings me back in.”

Archer appeared Monday before the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about Joe Biden’s role in his son and brother’s international dealings — as Republicans move closer to launching an impeachment inquiry.

Biden claimed in September 2019 that he’d “never spoken” with his son about “his overseas business dealings” — after saying in August 2019 that “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses.”

The former partner this week released a Jan. 20, 2011 letter from then-Vice President Joe Biden expressing his pleasure that he was partnering with Hunter and thanking him for attending a luncheon with visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Archer and Hunter Biden went on to join the Burisma board three years later, with Hunter earning up to $1 million per year as his father held the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio — after the then-second son helped launch the Chinese state-backed investment fund BHR Partners in late 2013.

Archer told Congress he joined then-Vice President Biden for DC dinners in the spring of 2014 and in April 2015 with his son’s Kazakhstani, Russian and Ukrainian partners.

Archer revealed the previously unknown 2014 meal in his Monday interview with the Oversight Committee.

The 2015 dinner formed the basis of The Post’s first article on documents recovered from Hunter’s abandoned laptop, though the Biden campaign falsely claimed at the time that “no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”

For Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi, who attended the 2015 dinner, it was a “prize” to be able to tell people in Ukraine that he met with Biden in Washington, as it demonstrated his connection to Ukraine’s powerful American patron, Archer told Carlson.

The former business partner also said Hunter’s ability to put his father on speaker phone during roughly 20 meetings with foreign clients was “enough” to demonstrate the influence they sought, even if the business was not directly discussed on calls.

As the second son, Hunter earned millions in countries where the elder Biden held sway as vice president — such as China, Romania, and Ukraine — and Joe Biden met with many of those employers.

Since his father took office as president, Hunter has launched a novice art career and has reportedly sold his works for at least $1.3 million, stoking new ethics concerns after it was revealed that one of his patrons frequently visited the West Wing and even scored a coveted commission appointment from the president.

In late June, President Biden denied lying about having no business conservations with his son — though the White House in recent weeks subtly shifted the official wording of its denials to state he “was never in business with his son.”

There’s overwhelming evidence of the president’s interactions with various foreign associates.

For example, Hunter co-founded BHR Partners 12 days after joining his dad aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hunter introduced Joe Biden to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital and the elder Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children. 

Archer testified Monday that Joe Biden and Li actually had coffee in Beijing — rather than a brief handshake as previously reported — and that Hunter put Li on speakerphone when he and Archer made a subsequent trip to China.

In December 2015, during a trip to Dubai for a Burisma board meeting, Hunter stepped away and “called his dad” with company owner Mykola Zlochevsky and Pozharskyi, Archer told the Oversight Committee.

Hunter wrote in emails retrieved from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden and the Oversight Committee in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly received foreign revenue.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who investigated Hunter over potential tax crimes for three and five years, respectively, said Justice Department officials blocked them from investigating Joe Biden’s role in business dealings — despite communications directly implicating him.

Among these was a threatening July 2017 WhatsApp message in which Hunter wrote to a Chinese associate as part of a second state-linked business venture he was “sitting here with my father” and warned of retribution if an agreement was not carried out.

That message immediately preceded the transfer of more than $5 million to Biden-linked accounts.

Another former Hunter Biden business partner, Tony Bobulinski, says he personally met with Joe Biden in 2017 about the CEFC China Energy venture and an email in May of that year from another Hunter Biden partner, James Gilliar, penciled in a 10% cut of proceeds for the “big guy,” whom both Bobulinski and Gilliar have identified as Joe Biden.

An October 2017 email from Hunter Biden’s laptop also identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas. 

Hunter’s probation-only plea deal to federal charges for tax and gun crimes fell apart last week after questioning by a federal judge revealed discrepancies about whether the bargain granted the first son broad immunity for past crimes, contradicting a federal prosecutor’s claim that he could still face charges for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

A non-public diversion agreement indicated he would have been shielded for uncharged offenses. 

Archer was sentenced last year to one year in prison for defrauding a Native American tribe and the Justice Department on Saturday asked a federal judge to begin the process to incarcerate him.