Tucker Carlson on Friday released the second part of his extended interview with Biden family whistleblower Devon Archer, discussing subjects spanning from his upbringing and introduction to the nation’s elites all the way to his falling out – and business dealings – with Hunter Biden.
Sitting together on camera for more than an hour, Carlson and Archer traded stories about his middle-class upbringing on Long Island and the contrast with the high-flying world of national politics that would later consume him.
“We were very much middle class,” said Archer. “My dad worked for Levi and Christian Dior in sales, and my mom was an art teacher. Very middle class, three-sport athlete. Even though it’s Long Island and close to the city it’s very Americana.”
Early on in his career, Archer participated in an Emmy Award-winning documentary before transitioning into finance. He took a position with insurance company New England Financial which was later purchased by MetLife, leading Archer to strike out on his own with a coworker. Together they founded a technology company in 2004, setting him up as a successful businessman who would go on to fundraise for the John Kerry for President campaign.
“I was a volunteer, raising capital, organizing some surrogate tours with celebrities that have since backfired,” he laughed. “And basically was poised by success with fundraising to take a job in the White House.”
Among the many Kerry volunteers left without a job after their candidate’s loss to President George W. Bush in 2004, Archer founded the nascent Rosemont Capital that would later go on to be the powerhouse firm he shared with Hunter Biden through their infamous deals with Ukrainian energy executives at Burisma.
“I met Hunter Biden at a lunch in ’08, ’09. My business was quite established,” said Archer.
It wasn’t until several years later that a mutual attorney friend would reconnect them when Hunter began transitioning away from lobbying and toward strategic advising, a career move necessitated by his father’s time in the White House as vice president.
“We were very small at the end of the day,” said Archer, but the duo took advantage of Hunter’s strategic advisory to pursue assets they could obtain for what later became Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Asked by Carlson if the political leverage he enjoyed helped Rosemont pursue larger deals with pension funds, and whether such pay-to-play amounted to corruption, Archer didn’t hesitate.
“Yes,” he said. “There’s an entire business world trying to define the line of demarcation there. It’s the ultimate form of corruption.”
As the opportunities progresses, Archer said, the duo’s reach expanded.
“Hindsight is 20/20, but it seemed like an opportunity to broaden our network, having this access and regulatory understanding” that Hunter brought with his father as vice president, Archer added.
While in Europe and struggling through a failed real estate deal, Archer and Hunter were introduced to Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky who immediately recognized the strategic value of working with them. Zlochevsky brought Archer to a meeting with the president of Poland, who encouraged him to join the board of Burisma.
The Polish president told him, “It was a great opportunity, energy independence for Ukraine. You can raise outside capital,” Archer recalled. “It was a very high-paying opportunity. This could be the next Exxon of Ukraine.”
By March 2014, Archer invited Hunter to serve Burisma as a lawyer based in D.C. working for an influential firm that Zlochevsky knew could serve their geopolitical interests.
“It made all the sense in the world, and if it had stayed like that history would be very different,” Archer said. “I don’t think I was a mark when they found Hunter, but… be careful what you wish for.”
It was later at the infamous meeting in Lake Komo during May of 2014, Archer recalled, that Burisma executive Vadym Pozharski told Archer and Hunter that “we urgently need your advice on how to use your influence to stop these politically motivated actions” by Ukraine’s top prosecutor Viktor Shokin who was initially investigating Burisma over several deposits and reserved. Over time, Archer said, European leaders began to push for Shokin to be fired, and that’s when Hunter began putting his father on the phone with Burisma executives.
Asked by Carlson why world powers like the United States would get involved in firing a country’s prosecutor, Archer didn’t have an answer.
“I don’t know, he said, “Anyone in government is always a threat, trying to shake businesses around, and at the end of the day Shokin was a threat… there’s a lot of interest in Ukraine and who controls it.”
Zlochevsky knew that having Hunter’s influence was the company’s ace in the hole, Archer said, even though various phone calls with then-Vice President Joe Biden didn’t talk about specific challenges faces by his company.
“The prize is knowing you have that proximity to power,” said Archer, adding that too often spectators get caught up in conspiracy theories far from the truth.”
“That’s the second most powerful man in the world, and that’s just how the world works” when it comes to business deals, he said regarding calls received from Joe Biden.
Asked if his proximity to Hunter put him at risk, Archer said the moment Burisma announced his friend was on their board he felt like Icarus flying too close to the sun. For 18 hours, he added, the story was the most viewed in the world.
“We didn’t calculate the risk appropriately, and the rest is history,” Archer said.
At Burisma, “there was constant pressure to send signals” to the White House that the company was facing external pressure from Shokin. They wanted us to “leverage the Biden brand and D.C. insiders to help Burisma survive.” Every time assets or visas were unfrozen, Archer said, their stock went up with Zlochevsky.
The two enjoyed a $2 million per year deal with Burisma, which was transferred to one of their limited liability shell companies, though that amount decreased over the years and fell precipitously when Hunter’s father left the White House. After falling into trouble with another business deal, Archer’s relationship with Hunter became strained, eventually breaking during the re-reversal of a conviction on defrauding charges that he previously blamed his former friend for over not leveraging his family to intervene with the Obama prosecutors who charged him.
There is no personal animosity with Hunter, Archer added, but it was a “big strategic mistake” to go into business together.
“The trajectory of my life would have been far better if I’d never met him.”
Watch the full interview: