Hunter Biden told Devon Archer to buy burner phone ahead of Burisma hire
Hunter Biden told his business partner Devon Archer to buy a burner phone in the spring of 2014 as he finalized the terms of his appointment to the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings — raising questions about whether the devices were used to conduct additional shady business involving the now-first son.
“Buy a cell phone from a 7/11 or CVS tmrw [tomorrow] and ill do the same,” Hunter, now 53, told Archer at the end of a lengthy email sent late on the evening of April 12, 2014.
Three days later, Archer met then-Vice President Joe Biden at the White House, according to visitor logs kept by the Obama administration.
Exactly a month after the email exchange, Burisma announced the then-second son had joined its board of directors.
A source familiar with Archer’s Monday deposition before the House Oversight Committee told The Post that the witness indicated the burner phones were for international use in the days before major US cellphone companies had convenient global calling plan add-ons.
However, an analysis of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop indicates that he used no fewer than 16 private messaging apps — many of them highly encrypted — suggesting he was willing and able to use technology to conceal potentially damaging information.
The April 2014 email to Archer from Hunter including a lengthy analysis of the political and economic situation in Ukraine following the ouster that winter of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych.
“We can actually be of real value here. Developing relationships, bringing US expertise to the company, supplying strategic advice on politics and geopolitical risk assesment [sic],” Hunter wrote, later adding: “The announcement of my guys [sic] upcoming travels should be characterized as part of our advice and thinking- but what he will say and do is out of our hands.”
“My guys” appears to be a reference to then-Vice President Joe Biden, who visited Ukraine later that month.
Notably, Hunter Biden underscored he wanted his Burisma contract to begin “now — not after the upcoming visit of my guy.”
He also stressed to Archer that they needed to convey “in no uncertain terms that we will not and cannot intervene directly with domestic policy makers” and that there would be strict adherence to “FARA and any other US laws,” a reference to a federal law requiring lobbyists for overseas entities to register with the Justice Department.
Some Republicans, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), have questioned whether Hunter had improper access to classified briefing materials before his rundown of the state of play in Ukraine.
Johnson told The Post in January that Hunter’s email to Archer read like a so-called “scene-setter,” a briefing document that the State Department gives senators when they travel overseas.
Devon Archer testimony: All the explosive allegations made so far
Devon Archer is a former business partner of Hunter Biden who was found guilty of trying to defraud a Native American tribe of almost $60 million in bonds and was sentenced to a year-and-a-day prison term. He testified before Congress on Monday and made several bombshell allegations. Here is what has been brought to light so far.
- Archer testified that Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings added Hunter Biden to its board because of the Biden “brand,” and paid Hunter up to $1 million a year.
- “Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it,” Archer claimed.
- Archer testified that Hunter Biden referred to his father Joe as “my guy” and connected him to foreign business associates.
- Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky put pressure on Hunter Biden to build US support for getting rid of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating his company, Archer testified.
- Joe Biden was put on speakerphone in business meetings at least 20 times, Archer testified.
- Hunter Biden bragged that Chinese business tycoon Che Feng loved him for his “last name” and was impressed by the group of “handsome Aryan godlike men” Biden brought with him “everywhere I go” in a 2011 email.
- Che Feng helped Hunter Biden’s firm secure favorable terms on a business partnership with Jonathan Li’s Bohai Capital and lateral launch Bohai Harvest RST, emails show.
- “I don’t believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman,” Hunter Biden boasted in an email. Super chairman was the first son’s nickname for Feng.
- Archer testified that Joe Biden met with Li while he served as vice president and wrote a college recommendation letter for his daughter.
- Archer claimed that Feng was so generous to Hunter Biden due to his family connections.
However, an official with knowledge of Ukraine intelligence matters dismissed the idea, saying at the time that the email “sounds like something he got from Wikipedia or a YouTube interview — like a paraphrased version of open-source reporting.”
Months after Hunter Biden ascended to the board of Burisma, his father ratcheted up pressure on Kyiv to oust Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was scrutinizing the company.
Joe Biden, 80, denied that his push to remove Shokin was tied to his son’s business interests, but the then-VP leveraged roughly $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine in 2015 to secure Shokin’s ouster and later boasted about it publicly.
During his roughly four-hour deposition Monday, Archer alleged that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky pressured Hunter Biden in 2015 to recruit US support to boot Shokin, according to a GOP readout of his testimony.
Hunter Biden was pushed to call “DC,” according to Republican accounts of Archer’s testimony, without specifying whether “DC” meant Joe Biden.
Notably, Zlochevsky allegedly told an FBI informant that he was “coerced” into paying $10 million in bribes to Hunter and Joe Biden, according to an FD-1023 form. Archer was not privy to any evidence to back up that allegation, according to Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).
Archer also recounted approximately 20 instances in which Hunter Biden would dial up his father during business meetings during his testimony.
President Biden had been adamant for years that he never spoke to Hunter about his overseas business pursuits.
However, the White House subtly changed tack recently, insisting the elder Biden “was never in business with his son.”
Hunter Biden is waiting for his legal team to negotiate a revised plea deal on federal tax and gun charges after an initial agreement imploded in federal court July 26.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson and Miranda Devine
