FIRST ON FOX: A former longtime friend and business associate of Hunter Biden reveals the blueprint he would like the Trump Justice Department to implement next President Biden announced on Sunday that he granted his son a full pardon.
Devon Archer, who served with Hunter on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, says he is looking ahead to the future and optimistic about the Trump DOJ. When Fox News asked Digital Archer about the elder Biden’s pardon, he sidestepped the pardon and instead called for the Trump DOJ to become “a nonpartisan institution again.”
“I look forward to the Trump Administration restoring the Department of Justice to an institution that reflects the founding principles of justice and adheres to federal laws comparable to its founding on July 1, 1870,” Archer told Fox News Digital .
“The DOJ must return to being a nonpartisan institution, rather than being guided by personal or political agendas as has been demonstrated in recent years,” he continued.
TRUMP PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED THAT BIDEN WOULD GIVE 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 had “an ongoing concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged,” according to Reuters.
Archer’s conviction would then be reinstated a month before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Elections 2020 and he was sentenced to one year and one day in prison in February 2022.
Devon Archer, left, and Hunter Biden, right (Fox News)
Despite the sentence, Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, has maintained his innocence and said they planned to file a series of appeals that would prevent Archer from serving his sentence.
“Mr Archer is clearly disappointed with today’s verdict 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 failed to act on her independent assessment of the evidence,” Schwartz said in February 2022.
President Biden announced Sunday that he had pardoned his son Hunter Biden after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.
The White House announced this on Sunday evening. The pardon applies to crimes against the US that Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed” from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024. This ten-year period 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 Department of Justice’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I watched my son be selectively and unjustly prosecuted.”
‘IT’S A SETUP’: 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 tax evasion trial in Los Angeles, California, on September 5, 2024. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Hunter Biden’s pardon has outraged Republicans, who have argued for years that Hunter Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president were not legitimate.
Archer spoke earlier the House Oversight and Accountability Committee last year and described the business ties 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 calls included 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 partner, 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 bankrupt if it weren’t 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, directly contradicting Archer’s testimony.
Democrats have insisted that Hunter Biden has done nothing wrong with his companies and that 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 such as use in a crime, multiple purchases or buying a gun as a straw buyer, people are almost never tried on a crime charge solely because of the way they filled out a gun form,” Biden said. “Those who paid their taxes late due to serious addictions, but then paid them back with interest and penalties, typically receive non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Biden also referenced his son’s battle with addiction and blamed “rough politics” for unraveling Hunter’s plea deal.
“Attempts have been made to break Hunter, who has been sober for five and a half years, even in the face of persistent attacks and selective prosecution,” the 82-year-old father wrote. “In their attempt to break Hunter, they’ve also tried to break me – and there’s no reason to think 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.
Emma Colton and Joe Schoffstall of Fox News Digital contributed to this report
