Hunter Biden Confirms Joe Met Foreign Business Partners, Defends Putting Him on Speakerphone: ‘Nothing Nefarious’

Testifying before lawmakers on Wednesday, Hunter Biden downplayed the fact that Joe Biden repeatedly spoke on speakerphone with his business partners and met with them at various dinners.

“Over the course of the last 30 years when speakerphone was invented on a cell phone? I’m certain my dad has called me. My dad calls me like I’m sure a lot of your parents do or a lot of you do with your children, and if I’m with people that are friends of mine, I’ll have him say hi,” Hunter testified, according to a newly released transcript of his testimony before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees.

The first son then addressed the testimony delivered last summer by former business partner and friend Devon Archer, who recalled roughly 20 instances where Joe Biden spoke with his son’s business associates, including two dinners in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Archer and Biden worked on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings together and investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners.

“Devon, I think, what did he testify, that over the course of our ten-year relationship I was — maybe ten or 20 times that he can remember. He can’t recall the specific times that I put my dad on speakerphone when I was at a dinner or at a social event, so that means, over the course of ten years, twice a year, my dad would call me, and I would be in the middle of a dinner, and I always answer his call,” Hunter Biden testified.

“I always answer his call, based upon my life’s experience. And you’re telling me, so two times a year over the course of ten years, maybe more, or 15 years with Devon Archer, yes, that probably did happen.”

Hunter told lawmakers he would pick up the phone during his testimony if his father gave him a call while he was testifying.

“I’m surprised my dad hasn’t called me right now, and if he did, I would put him on speakerphone to say ‘hi’ to you and to Congressman Raskin and everybody else in the room. It is nothing nefarious literally. You understand my relationship with my family,” he stated.

Archer specifically described a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina in attendance and another dinner the next year with Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev among the attendees.

Baturina wired $3.5 million to a shell company linked to Archer and Biden, and that company sent $1 million to Archer himself, bank records indicate. The rest of the money went to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, an account Archer and Biden used to receive foreign payments from Burisma and elsewhere, according to the bank records and testimony from IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, an IRS agent who spent years on the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes.

Hunter Biden denied receiving any money from Baturina. Archer previously testified that Baturina’s relationship with Rosemont Seneca’s real-estate entity was outside of Hunter Biden’s business portfolio.

Both dinners took place at Cafe Milano in Washington, D.C., a known hotspot for prominent public figures in the nation’s capital. The two dinners were among the dozens Hunter had at the restaurant. The younger Biden could not definitively recall Baturina’s presence at any dinners but he did confirm Rakishev was one of the guests at the 2015 dinner.

Joe Biden walked into the 2015 dinner and sat next to a guest who was there to view presentations from his son and other representatives of the World Food Program, Hunter Biden recalled. Rakishev met Joe Biden at the dinner for the World Food Program.

Rakishev wired Rosemont Seneca Bohai over $142,000 in April 2014 and Hunter Biden used the funds to buy a Porsche, the bank records show. He claimed the payment’s purpose was to help Archer out with the real-estate business. Ziegler testified that Hunter’s Porsche was purchased with the Rosemont Seneca Bohai money sent by Rakishev.

Hunter also confirmed that Pozharskyi, the Burisma executive, attended one of the dinners in question. An email sent by Pozharskyi to Hunter Biden in April 2015 indicates he met Joe Biden the night before, the New York Post first reported ahead of the 2020 election.

“What Vadym is talking about is that, the night before, he attended the World Food Programme dinner at Cafe Milano. My dad came to that and stopped by to say hello to people that were there that he had a longstanding relationship with. Vadym was one of the people sitting at the table, and he said hello to them,” Hunter testified in response to questioning from Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) about the email from Pozharskyi.

Gaetz and Hunter got into a disagreement over the nature of Pozharskyi’s encounter with Joe Biden and whether the dinners and speakerphone discussions meant Joe Biden was involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.

Burisma paid Biden and Archer millions of dollars in 2014 and 2015 but significantly reduced his salary significantly in 2017 shortly after his father’s vice presidency concluded.

While he insisted his father was not involved in his business dealings, Hunter did confirm during his testimony that he traveled to China on Air Force Two and introduced then-Vice President Biden to Chinese business partner Jonathan Li.

“I traveled with my father on that trip as I’ve traveled with my father my entire life,” he testified. “When we returned from an event to the hotel, there was a rope line, and Jonathan Li was in the lobby of the hotel where I was going to meet him for coffee. In that line I introduced my dad to Jonathan Li and a friend of his, and they shook hands and I believe probably took a photograph. And then my father went up to his room, and I went to have coffee with Jonathan Li.”

The pair were working on a private-equity deal at the time to facilitate cross-border investments. Li and Biden eventually created investment fund BHR Partners and Hunter Biden had a 10 percent stake in the venture. Then-Vice President Biden later wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s son.

In summer 2019, Li loaned Hunter Biden $250,000 in a payment listing Joe Biden’s Delaware residence as the beneficiary address, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky) said in September. Kevin Morris, Hunter’s financial patron and a Democratic party donor, purchased the loan debt and the BHR stake, Hunter confirmed. Morris testified in January and confirmed the transaction took place when he bought the holding company containing Biden’s BHR equity.

Hunter also confirmed he and his father met business partner Tony Bobulinski in California when Joe Biden had a speech scheduled at the Milken Institute conference, a central element of Bobulinski’s testimony. James Biden, Hunter’s uncle, was also in attendance at the May 2017 meeting, which took place during negotiations over a proposed venture alongside Chinese conglomerate CEFC that eventually fell through. Instead, CEFC entered into a lucrative venture with James and Hunter Biden called Hudson West III that brought in millions for the Bidens, bank records and Hunter’s tax indictment show.

“My uncle and myself. I think my uncle was also staying at that hotel. And so yeah. I know that, if you go further, it says — but I think that the reality is that he  didn’t — anyway, my dad went and shook hands with Tony,” Hunter testified. The night before, Hunter and Bobulinski had dinner together for their first in-person meeting.

James and Hunter Biden both characterized Bobulinski as an arrogant, disgruntled former business partner. Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) has also questioned Bobulinski’s credibility, leading to strongly worded responses from Bobulinski’s attorney.

House Republicans are pursing the impeachment inquiry into President Biden over the apparent role he played in his son’s foreign business dealings. The meetings and phone calls between Joe Biden and his son’s foreign business partners are a major aspect of the impeachment inquiry. Hunter Biden repeatedly insisted his father was not involved with his foreign business enterprise.

Comer (R., Ky.) said following the closed-door session that Hunter will testify publicly at some point in the future.