Hunter Biden allegedly "called D.C." in 2015 to get the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his Ukrainian employer fired, his former business associate Devon Archer reportedly testified Monday.
Archer, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings with Biden, levied the allegation during his Monday testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Fox News reported. Archer also testified Biden called his father more than 20 times during business meetings to sell the Biden "brand."
Archer alleged that Burisma executives pressured Biden to "get help from D.C." to push the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor who investigated the gas company for corruption. At the time, then-vice president Joe Biden oversaw the Obama administration's policy toward Ukraine.
A source told Fox that Archer testified that Hunter Biden and two Burisma executives stepped away to make calls regarding Shokin, though it's unclear whether Joe Biden was on the matter. Archer reportedly claimed Biden days later traveled to Ukraine and spoke about reforming the prosecutor's office.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) confirmed to the media that Hunter would call his father on speakerphone during meetings but attempted to play them down.
"It was clear that it was part of the daily conversations that Hunter Biden had with his father, and it sounded like most of the time now-president Biden didn’t even know who the people were with at dinner and was just asked to say hello and he would talk about the weather," Goldman said.
Joe Biden, however, has frequently distanced himself from his son's lucrative foreign business dealings.
"I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period," Biden said in August 2019.
House Republicans on Monday launched an investigation into the plea deal Hunter Biden reached with the Department of Justice that was ultimately rejected by a federal judge who called it "not standard."
The deal would have allowed Biden to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes and receive immunity on a broad range of criminal charges, all while avoiding jail time.
Federal judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the deal and told prosecutors and Biden's legal team to craft a new one. She said the deal was "not standard" and "different from what I normally see."
"Given recent unusual events relating to the Department’s plea and pretrial diversion agreements with Mr. Biden, we write to better understand the Department’s decision to sign off on such apparently atypical agreements," the committee chairmen said in the letter.