Devon Archer's testimony shows 'real quid pro quo' in Ukraine was Joe Biden, Comer says

Devon Archer's explosive testimony to Congress could further unravel a narrative about Ukraine corruption that was first cemented during the impeachment case against former President Trump in 2019, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer tells Just the News.

Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, reportedly revealed in the closed-door testimony Monday that Hunter Biden was being pressured back in December 2015 to do something about Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.

In the same month, Hunter's father, Joe Biden, had helped get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired while Biden was serving as vice president. Archer also said Burisma would not have survived had it not been for the influence of the Biden family.

"It's just unbelievable," Comer said Monday, after Archer testified, on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV program.

"We've brought forward, a few weeks ago, an FBI document that alleges that Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme for this very scenario," he also said. "Now we know, despite Joe Biden saying he never had any knowledge of any of this, that he regularly spoke on the phone with the owners of these companies."

Comer also said: "When in American history has a vice president ever taken an active role, and demanded that a prosecutor be fired in a foreign country for simply investigating a business that was domiciled in that foreign country? Never. The evidence continues to mount that the real quid pro quo pertaining to Ukraine in Burisma was Joe Biden."

Comer argued that Biden helped get the prosecutor fired because "he was closing in on his son."

"I think that was basically what we learned today and, you know, more and more people are going to come forward now," he said.

Biden said on the campaign trail during the 2020 election that he never discussed foreign business dealings with son Hunter.

Archer testified that President Biden, the vice president in the Obama administration, was on the phone about 20 times with individuals that Hunter was doing business with at the time, according to a lawmaker in the room. 

Democrats in Congress in 2019 argued that Trump had no basis to ask Ukraine's president to investigate Hunter Biden over his ties to Burisma and the firing of the prosecutor.

"President Trump, he was impeached over what the Bidens actually were doing," said Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington, while also appearing on "Just the News, No Noise."

"Just think of that: a perfect phone call and here we have 20 phone calls, at least, of Joe Biden being involved with, obviously, his son's business dealings because Hunter, by his own admission, had no business being on the board of Burisma."

Harrington predicted that Trump would eventually be "completely vindicated."

New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who heard Archer's testimony, told reporters that Archer recalled Hunter speaking with his father "every day" on the phone.

"He approximated that about 20 times over the course of his 10-year business relationship that he had with Hunter Biden, which would be about twice a year, that Hunter would put his father on speakerphone with whomever was at dinner – and there was no indication that he had any idea who was at dinner with them," according to Goldman's recount of Archer's testimony. 

Comer argued that these phone conversations are evidence of "influence peddling."

"They were selling access to Joe and I think most people in America would have a problem with that," he said. "That's why we're investigating Joe Biden. We know his family has sold access to him for years. The problem is we could have a president that's compromised."

"It was also mentioned that Joe Biden met with that Russian oligarch," Comer also said. "I don't know that we knew that. And yet, that Russian oligarch was one of the few oligarchs, the only oligarch that didn't get sanctioned by Joe Biden.

"And then you look at the decision as vice president where he went on TV and admitted and bragged about firing the prosecutor. Those are two decisions Joe Biden made as president and vice president that was counter to the best interests of the American people, but where he put the Biden family first and American last."