Former business partner says Hunter Biden sold 'illusion' of access to Joe Biden, source says

Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee on Monday that his former business partner, Hunter Biden, was selling the "illusion" of access to his father, according to a source familiar with the closed-door interview, the latest development in the Republican-led congressional investigations into the president's son.

The source also reiterated that Archer provided no evidence connecting President Joe Biden to any of his son's foreign business dealings.

Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat on the panel who sat through the portion of Archer's interview where he was questioned by Republicans, also said there was a lack of evidence connecting the president to his son's foreign dealings. Goldman said Archer told the panel that Hunter Biden did put his father on speaker phone in the presence of business partners, but that business was never discussed.

Archer's testimony came as House Republicans appear to be shifting their focus away from trying to impeach members of President Joe Biden's Cabinet and instead prioritizing efforts to impeach the president himself by linking him to his son's controversial business dealings, with House investigations related to Hunter Biden now expected to take center stage.

Goldman told reporters during a break in the hearing that Archer later said that Hunter Biden putting his father on speaker phone with business associates was "part of the daily conversations" between father and son, adding, "The witness was very consistent that none of those conversations ever had to do with any business dealings or transactions."

Goldman said that it is "kind of a preposterous premise to think that a father should not say hello to the people that a son is at dinner with and that is literally all the evidence is."

Goldman contended that President Biden's phone conversations were not conflicts of interest because it "was not done in furtherance of" Hunter Biden's business interests.