Hunter and Archer, a fable rivaling Icarus

The details of this convoluted scandal are at turns simplistic or too stunning to believe, but those that choose to doubt it are living in an absurd state of denial.

The reaction to July’s closed door testimony by Devon Archer before the House Committee on Government Oversight was nothing short of panicked. Media talking heads like MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire and the on-duty Biden defender Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) went into the full court press defense typical of a desperate basketball team trailing at the end of a knockout playoff game. The new narrative was on display fresh out of its protective wrapping: Yes, Hunter Biden was using his family's name to peddle influence to clients needing top level interference, but it was only the illusion of influence, AND Joe Biden was not aware of this, OR through his paternal concern for Hunter in the aftermath of older brother Beau's death had "turned a blind eye" (indulged) to his surviving son's illegal activity. Out with the old puff pieces that Hunter was a troubled addict who was a victim of circumstance, in with the new one that the son's corruption was a way to take advantage of the father's compassion in the wake of tragedy.

This is a comfortable lie for those that have so far given the Bidens the benefit of the doubt and see the Hunter Biden saga as being either a GOP conspiracy theory or a minor legal issue blown out of proportion and politicized. It is not the truth, and the reaction to Archer's testimony and follow-up Tucker Carlson interview showed that Lemire, Goldman and other Biden gatekeepers are desperate that Democratic news viewers don't get the chance to look at that truth and hear it speak. This is because the image of Devon Archer entering Congress or sitting across from Carlson, smiling gregariously with his clothes pressed and hair slicked back like the Washington insider he is, presents the true face of the real beneficiaries of the Democratic Party's policies. He appeared not only comfortable with Carlson, considered the devil incarnate among the party faithful, but dressed virtually the same in a blazer and khakis. At points where Archer seemed coy about spelling out parts of the Biden brand that he was unsure of, they would often laugh together sarcastically about how their private equity firm offered a "diverse portfolio" of investments for clients. The focus of the story was how Archer and Hunter Biden had built their entire business around trafficking in the Biden name as a means of attracting clients who needed favours to be done and would be willing to pay top dollar.

Flashback to Casino Jack

It's not as if the archetypical DC lobbyist is a new creature, it's just that he used to be associated with the easier to hate Republicans. In 2006, before both Joe Biden and his future running mate Barack Obama ran for the Democratic nomination, the press was aflutter over a notoriously corrupt and unscrupulous conservative lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Progressive author Thomas Frank, a former conservative, dubbed him and his ilk the "Wrecking Crew" for their penchant of abusing the government and bureaucracy that they profess to despise as wasteful in order to fill their own pockets. In the following years among liberal media and their audience the name Abramoff became synonymous with Republican hypocrisy, exploitation, and greed. He would be the subject of a documentary by Alex Gibney (Freakonomics, Steve Jobs) and a feature length drama film starring Kevin Spacey, both of them named Casino Jack. A key middleman in deals representing American Indian tribes and big corporations, Abramoff's critical - and criminal - strategy was simple: Gain access to members of Congress and cabinet officials through financial favours and perks like tickets to their aides and associates. Ultimately only one actual elected official was netted in the criminal investigation, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) who directly accepted bribes in the form of campaign contributions from an Abramoff associate. However, numerous others were forced to fall on their swords due to the scandal, in particular House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful members of Congress and a major player in the socially conservative wing of the party. The crimes Abramoff and his associates committed were definitely worthy of the news coverage and the penalties, but they were not unusually egregious. The flaw in the scheme was that they were sloppy enough to believe that the favours given to the Republican aides and department officials were conventional enough that law enforcement would look the other way. He was wrong, and in 2006 was convicted after his house of cards (ironic since Spacey later starred in the series of the same name) collapsed on three counts of fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion. Importantly, the Abramoff scheme was investigated and exposed by a Republican Congress, in particular through the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). They did not close ranks behind him.

Less than twenty years later many elements of the Jack Abramoff scandal are present in Hunter Biden's convoluted web of corruption and influence peddling. Like Abramoff partner Michael Scanlon, Archer in February 2022 was convicted for defrauding the Oglala Sioux nation through $60 million in bonds. But the influence and cachet that Hunter Biden enjoyed through Joe Biden and other Obama Administration officials is something that neither Abramoff nor DeLay ever had. For example, according to former White House stenographer Mike McCormick, in February 2014 Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pitched to reporters during a flight to Ukraine on Air Force Two that the US would be helping Ukraine's natural gas industry not long after Hunter was appointed to Burisma's board. Not long afterward Biden visited Cyprus on the pretext of peace diplomacy towards reuniting the island's Greek and Turkish halves, however many have speculated the true purpose was that Burisma's headquarters are on the island. The Guardian focused on how the trip was centered around energy policy, with Cyprus as an alternative to Russia for natural gas. While the press gullibly allowed unity talks to be used as the pretense for the visit, it should be noted that one year later neither side had made much progress, yet Biden took another visit to Cyprus. That year Biden also attended in person a dinner with Burisma executive Vadym Pozharski along with Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina at DC's Cafe Milano.

All of this happened prior to the tragic death of Beau Biden on May 30, 2015, but it did not stop there. To be fair, we are not yet aware of the full details of what went on between Hunter, Joe, Archer, and any of the other players involved. However, it requires an extraordinary degree of naïveté to believe as Dan Goldman claims that Archer's testimony and the available information of other witnesses, whistleblowers, bank transaction records and suspicious activity requests (SARS), leaked laptop hard drives, and even an FBI FD-1023 form from a Burisma executive effectively confessing to buying influence through Hunter points to Joe being clueless about what Hunter Biden was doing. But let us humour that line of thinking for a few moments.

According to Goldman's questioning of Archer during the committee hearings, despite this mountain of activity and evidence pointing to a criminal conspiracy by various foreign interests to pay consultant groups run by Hunter as a conduit to Joe Biden at the top, all that was sold by Hunter Biden was the "illusion of access" not the access itself. What he draws upon was Archer's statement that generally Joe Biden would be patched into the call with Hunter and would usually discuss something benign and mundane like the weather or politics. Goldman repeatedly uses the term "illusion of access", and Archer appears to agree. So does that mean that the case is closed and Goldman's premise is agreed upon by the witness? Not so fast. If Hunter Biden was conning international businessmen like Mykola Zlochevsky and Jonathan Li out of their money by promising them access to his dad that he couldn't deliver, wouldn't one expect that at some point they would cry foul on the deal? Are we to believe that these companies paying cumulatively millions of dollars to Hunter over years and in some cases over a decade for access to Joe Biden would continue to pay if they were not getting the service they wanted? On the contrary, if Hunter sold the "illusion" of access, once these corrupt businessmen attempted to exert their right to access Joe and were rebuffed wouldn't they cease payments and call foul?

Here we get to the point where Goldman's "illusion of access" delusion falls apart. Hunter Biden did not defraud his clients with the illusion of access, rather he peddled influence with his dad and used the interjections from his dad during meetings as a demonstration that the answer to their needs was just one call away - through Hunter. There was no need to discuss proper exchange of services with Joe Biden during the meeting, that would have been foolish even for him. However when a favour was needed later all that was needed was for the petitioner to ask Joe via Hunter. This is what happened in 2017 when Jonathan Li, a Chinese executive at BHR, a joint venture between Hunter's private equity fund Rosemont Seneca and the Bank of China (BOC), requested letters of recommendation from Biden in order to gain his son admission to Brown University. James Gilliar, a British citizen and another Hunter Biden partner through another Chinese company CEFC, at one point hoped to leverage these relationships in order to facilitate the acquisition of US energy assets for China according to text messages with another of Hunter's partners, Tony Bobulinski.

How is it that these leads become exposed? As Archer admitted during the Tucker interview, the brazen arrogance of Hunter and other partners and the notion that they were above accountability led to what he calls an "Icarus moment" when they flew too close to the sun. Their names read like roles in a Greek myth or Aesop's fables. The Icarus story, relating the escape of Icarus with his engineer father Daedalus from building the Cretan Labyrinth for King Minos before escaping on crafted wings is a classic tale warning the youth not to be arrogant. In real life however the father Joe appears to have used his son Hunter and vice versa, and the labyrinth of lies and corruption was built by the son and others with a wink and nod from Dad. According to Archer this moment came when it was publicly announced that Burisma had appointed Hunter Biden to its board. These are only some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of Biden family corruption that are coming into view, but Dan Goldman would have one believe that Hunter Biden's small central part in that picture doesn't lead up. The only people foolish enough to take him at his word are those like Sam Harris so blinded by partisan prejudices that they could not accept that there would be massive corruption on their own side. Unfortunately, much of the American electorate still lives under that mentality. The recent humiliation of Washington Post writer Philip Bump as he talked in circles (see above) to try to rationalize this denial shows to what lengths some will go to avoid facing the truth.