Who Is Devon Archer and Why Is He Providing Closed-Door Testimony To Congress?

by ShipWreckedCrew

Note: I wrote this article prior to the collapse of the Hunter Biden plea agreement, and the Washington D.C. indictment of former President Trump. The coverage of those events caused me to hold off on publishing this story. But after I wrote the article Devon Archer sat for a deposition with the House Oversight Committee — which has now released the transcript — and a two-part extended interview with Tucker Carlson is now online.

The premise of the article is something of a “Who is Devon Archer” — meant to come out ahead of his revelations about his business dealings with Hunter Biden, Burisma, Chinese interests, and the involvement Joe Biden in the above. I first wrote a series of articles about Archer in October 2020, just after the 2nd Cir. Court of Appeals reinstated is 2018 conviction for securities fraud. Up until that point I didn’t know much about him, but he had been the subject of some reporting surrounding the NY Post release of information from Hunter Biden’s laptop. At the time — as most recall — information from the laptop was called likely Russian “misinformation” and the product of a Russian intelligence operation to disrupt the upcoming election. Almost three years later it is plain that the reporting on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in that time frame was accurate, including information about his business dealings with Devon Archer.

Even though some of what follows has now been widely reported on, I’m going to run it today as a prelude to covering in more detail the revelations from Archer’s testimony before the Oversight Committee, and his interview with Tucker Carlson.

Oftentimes a story will catch fire on social media in a fashion that makes the details familiar to those following a specific narrative arc, while at the same time a large segment not following the arc is left scratching their collective heads and wondering “What is that all about anyway?”

I think Devon Archer might be one of those subjects because to have an appreciation for what has happened the past week — he submitted to an under-oath transcribed interview for the House Oversight Committee and did a very long interview on Tucker Carlson’s new show — you need to know some of the backstory about how it is he came to play a significant role for nearly a decade in the Biden Family Influence Peddling Business.

I first began writing about Devon Archer in early October 2020 while still a front-page contributor at RedState. I published 5 stories that focused on him and his business relationship with Hunter Biden and others. It began when I read an article indicating that his conviction for securities fraud had been reinstated by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in the late summer of 2020, he was likely destined for federal prison in the near future, and that might motivate him to with the Trump DOJ in investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business activities — much of which seemed to flirt with violations of federal criminal law.

Archer had been arrested and convicted for his role in a 2014-15 fraudulent Indian Tribe Bond scam carried out by a few well-known Wall Street fraudster. The first issue that attracted my interest was the question “How did Devon Archer get himself mixed up with a bunch of guys who pulled off a $60 million fraudulent Indian Tribe Bond Scam?

The impression I came away from that inquiry was that he was a “I wanna be rich” guy because he was a middle-class Yale grad who was a college roommate of Chris Heinz, a really really actually rich guy. Archer latched himself to the Heinz family, starting out as a Hollywood bagman — I mean campaign contribution “bundler” — for John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign. Kerry had married Chris Heinz’s mother after his father, the late Senator John Heinz, was killed in a place crash. John Kerry spotted an underutilized luxurious private jet that belonged to the Heinz family and realized that he could fly around the world in luxury to campaign against global warming using that jet — all he had to do was marry the now-widowed Theresa Heinz. So he did.

Archer could recognize a gravy train just as well as John Kerry, so he latched himself onto Chris Heinz after college and involved himself in a variety of Heinz family businesses and philanthropic activities.

Just for reference, understand that “Rosemont” is the name of the Heinz family’s home/compound in Pennsylvania. Note the number of times the name “Rosemont” turns up in various enterprises that Archer had his hand in over the past 15-20 years as you read about him here and elsewhere.

Several days ago there was quite a bit of dust kicked up by the filing of a letter request by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York asking that Archer be given a “surrender date” by which he must report to the Bureau of Prisons facility to which he has been designated. Much speculation — and much factually erroneous claims about this being an effort to have him arrested — centered on the timing of this letter and to his planned deposition earlier this week for the House Oversight Committee.

So why is he going to jail? And what is some of the factual backstory regarding his long-time relationship with Hunter Biden?

Devon Archer was convicted of securities fraud in June 2018. The Trump Justice Department prosecuted him but the investigation into the bond scam started during the earlier Obama Administration.

The fraudulent conduct had taken place during 2014-15 — while Joe Biden was VP in the Obama Administration. There was an SEC enforcement action filed against Archer and his partners regarding the fraud in 2016 — again, during the Obama Administration. Archer and his co-defendants were all indicted and arrested in 2016 as well — by the Obama/Biden DOJ.

After his conviction by a jury in June 2018, Judge Ronnie Abrams vacated the guilty verdict against Archer and ordered a new trial. The Trump DOJ appealed that decision to the 2nd Cir. That court reversed Judge Abrams in early October 2020, reinstated the jury’s guilty verdicts and remanded the case back to Judge Abrams for sentencing.

She sentenced Archer to 12 months and 1 day. He then appealed his conviction and sentence to the 2nd Cir. On June 7, 2023 — seven weeks ago — the 2nd Cir. affirmed his conviction and sentence. The Government’s letter several days ago was a request that Archer be directed to surrender himself to the BOP facility to which he has been designated on or before a date set by the court — normally about 60 days from the date of the issuance of the Order.

So what is it that Archer might say that makes him such an important figure in the Biden Family Influence Peddling Business?

Some details are covered below, but with his testimony before the House Committee and his interview with Tucker Carlson now public, much more is known about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, AND the specifics of how Joe Biden was involved.

These details have forced the Biden Administration to reverse course after years of blanket denials, and admit that while serving as Vice President Joe Biden did have contact with Hunter Biden and his foreign business associates. The allegations regarding bribe-taking and influencing U.S. government policy for as part of the Biden Family Influence Peddling Business now have numerous corroborating data points that extend beyond simple timing, and they can no longer be brushed off as “coincidental.” Devon Archer’s corroboration of many details, and the existence of documentary information that corroborates most of what Devon Archer has said, draw the noose tighten around the necks of both Hunter and Joe Biden. Now that the blanket denials of wrongdoing have crumbled, it’s just a matter of how many pieces the media bubble protecting them will be shattered into.

As a aside — an interesting part of the Trump indictment is that the facts of those allegations are now in the public domain. There isn’t much remaining to be known that reporters can continue to seek to uncover. SCO Smith put the entire narrative in a 45 page press release disguised as a charging document. That cake is baked — in a manner of speaking.

On the other hand, there is still much to be learned about the actions of Hunter and Joe Biden. The effort to freeze further investigation by federal law enforcement with the botched global plea agreement regarding his tax crimes only further supports the speculation that there is much more criminal activity that the Biden DOJ wants to keep buried in a case file it wants to close.

So, who is Devon Archer and how did he end up in a sit-down interview with Tucker?

Devon Archer joined the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings in early 2014. Burisma is a Ukrainian natural gas company at the center of allegations that the owner paid $10 million in bribe money to obtain the influence of VP Joe Biden to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired who was pursuing a corruption investigation into Burisma’s owner. It was Devon Archer who suggested in April 2014 that Hunter Biden be added to the Burisma Board even though Hunter didn’t speak Ukrainian, had no experience in the energy sector, and had just been kicked out of the US Navy Reserve for drug use.

Hunter was named to the Board, for a fat salary of $1 million a year, only 1 month after VP Joe Biden was made the “point man” in the Obama Administration to deal with Ukraine issues.

So, how to Devon Archer find himself at this “intersection of influence” in the spring of 2014 that he could play the “Put Hunter on the Board” card with Burisma’s owner?

Chris Heinz, Devon Archer and Hunter Biden were the three founding partners of “Rosemont Seneca Partners.” As noted, Rosemont was the name of the Heinz family estate, it was also used in the family’s philanthropic arm “Rosemont Foundation”, and a family investment arm “Rosemont Capital.”

“Seneca” is the name of one of the Finger Lakes in New York near where Hunter Biden’s mother was born, so it had sentimental meaning to him.

In the Tucker Carlson interview, which I will cover in another article, Archer described their business plan as bringing regulatory expertise and consulting to the finance world of “private equity.”

As he described it, the concept involved being an “expert” at “knowing the guy who knows the guy who can help” when a private equity company needs help. The “Biden Brand” as he called it meant that Hunter Biden, Beau Biden, Joe Biden, and other Biden family members knew a lot of guys who could help.

It’s a benign way of describing influence peddling.

So Hunter Biden was named to the Board of Burisman Holdings, with a $1 million annual salary, because he “Knew the guy who knew the guy” — and his guy was the Vice President of the U.S. Burisma’s owner had a problem — the prosecutor in Ukraine looking into how Burisma came to own hundreds of millions of dollars worth of natural gas leases on government land in Ukraine, while serving as a natural resources Minister in a previous Ukraine administration.

As just about everyone knows, the prosecutor was later fired on the express demand by Joe Biden, with a threat that he would hold up billions in U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine if it did not happen. Joe Biden said so.

Read more