FIRST ON FOX: A former longtime friend and business partner of Hunter Biden reveals the blueprint he would like the Trump Department of Justice to implement after President Biden announced on Sunday that he was giving his son a full pardon.
Devon Archer, who served on Ukrainian energy company Burisma’s board alongside Hunter, says he is looking ahead to the future and is optimistic about the Trump DOJ. When Fox News Digital asked Archer about the elder Biden’s pardon, he sidestepped addressing the pardon and instead called for the Trump DOJ to be “an impartial institution again.”
“I look forward to the Trump Administration restoring the Justice Department to an institution that reflects the founding principles of justice and adheres to federal laws akin to its inception on July 1, 1870,” Archer told Fox News Digital.
“The DOJ needs to be an impartial institution again rather than being driven by personal or political agendas as witnessed in recent years,” he continued.
TRUMP PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED BIDEN WOULD PARDON SON HUNTER
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Sunday (Fox News)
Archer has faced his own legal troubles related to his criminal conviction for his alleged role in defrauding a Native American tribe. A federal judge sentenced Archer to prison in 2018 for allegedly defrauding the tribe by fraudulently issuing $60 million in tribal bonds after he was convicted by a jury.
However, his conviction was thrown out in late 2018 by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan because she was “left with an unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged,” according to Reuters.
Archer’s conviction would then be reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals a month before the 2020 election and he received a one-year and one-day prison sentence in February 2022.
Devon Archer, left, and Hunter Biden, right (Fox News)
Despite the sentence, Archer’s lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, has maintained his innocence and said they intended to file a series of appeals, which has delayed Archer serving his sentence.
“Mr. Archer is obviously disappointed with today’s sentence, and intends to appeal. It is unfortunate that the judge, who has previously expressed concern that Mr. Archer is innocent of the crimes charged and reiterated that belief today, felt that she was constrained not to act on her independent assessment of the evidence,” Schwartz said in February 2022.
President Biden announced on Sunday that he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.
The announcement was made by the White House on Sunday night. The pardon applies to offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024. This decade-long window covers Hunter’s Burisma tenure, among several other shady foreign business dealings.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Biden wrote in a statement. “From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
‘IT’S A SETBACK’: DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE BIDEN OVER HUNTER PARDON
Hunter Biden (L), son of US President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen, leave court after his guilty plea in his trial on tax evasion in Los Angeles, California, on September 5, 2024. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Hunter Biden’s pardon has incensed Republicans who have alleged for years that Hunter Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president were not legitimate.
Archer spoke before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee last year and detailed the business connections between Joe and Hunter Biden.
Archer said Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand,” according to a transcript of the hearing. These phone calls included a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li of BHR Partners, a state-backed private equity firm.
Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer testified at a closed-door hearing in 2023 (Fox News)
Archer also testified that there was value in adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board as “the brand,” a source previously told Fox News Digital. The argument was that then-Vice President Joe Biden brought the most value. Archer also stated that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, would have gone under if not for “the brand.”
The president, his 2020 campaign staff and top White House aides previously claimed at least 20 times that Biden “never discussed” his son Hunter’s business dealings with him, which Archer’s testimony directly contradicted.
Democrats have maintained that Hunter Biden did nothing wrong with his businesses and the president defended his son in his Sunday statement.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 31: Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden. ((Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images))
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“Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” Biden said. “Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Biden also referenced his son’s battle with addiction and blamed “raw politics” for the unraveling of Hunter’s plea deal.
“There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” the 82-year-old father wrote. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” Biden’s statement concluded.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report
