During his recent closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee Devon Archer has shed light on a longstanding controversy surrounding the infamous April 2015 dinner, which was allegedly attended by Hunter's father, Joe Biden, who at the time was Barack Obama's veep.
On October 14, 2020, the New York Post dropped a bombshell by alleging that Joe Biden met with Vadym Pozharsky, chief financial officer of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas firm that hired Hunter Biden in 2014 and paid him over $50,000 annually, in April 2015. To back its claim, the media quoted a letter emanating from the notorious "laptop from hell" – Hunter's device that he abandoned in a Delaware repair shop in 2019.
"Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure," the letter dated April 17, 2015, and supposedly written by Vadym Pozharsky, read.
At the time, the campaign spokesman for Joe said that the former VP's schedule for that day contained no record of any such meeting. The allegations were trashed by Team Biden as well as former top intelligence officials who smeared the laptop as "Russian disinformation."
Nonetheless, in May 2021, author and investigative journalist Miranda Devine provided further details about the meeting in question. She wrote that on April 16, 2015, then-Vice President Joe Biden attended a dinner that was held in the private "garden room" at Cafe Milano in Washington where he joined Pozharsky as well as some other of his son's "shady business partners."
If Joe did attend the meeting it would mean that he had repeatedly lied to the American people when he said that he had zero knowledge of his son's business activities. It would also suggest a conflict of interests, and, what's worse, potential corruption.
In 2021, the US mainstream press was not as categorical about Joe's infallibility as before the 2020 election, so they acknowledged that the elder Biden "only dropped by briefly" at Café Milano on that day to meet with one of the guests, Alex Karloutsos, known as Father Alex who used to be "one of the most powerful figures in the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States." Biden "was not part of the dinner or part of the dinner discussion", insisted the corporate press. "Dropping by" to meet a priest did not sound that bad, so the matter was believed to be solved.
However, Archer's latest testimony seems to have finally straightened the record of the controversial dinner out. As per Archer, Joe didn't just drop by to have a brief chat with Father Alexis on April 16, 2015: the elder Biden sat down, "shook everybody's hand", and engaged in conversation with Hunter's business associates including "Vadym P. from Burisma."
What's more, the whole thing was planned beforehand, according to US lawyer and legal scholar Jonathan Turley.
"A month before the dinner, Hunter and Archer discussed the dinner guests, including 'Pozharskyi,' who was listed as 'Vadim' and 'Vadym.' Archer added 'Obviously save a seat for your guy.' Biden associates were told not to refer to Joe Biden by name and referred to him as 'your guy,' 'my guy' or 'the Big Guy'," Turley wrote in his blog on August 6.
According to Turley, "part of the brilliance of the Biden influence peddling operation was to invest the media in the denial of any scandal." Over the years, the US mainstream press either muted information concerning the Bidens' controversial operations or altogether denied them.
Meanwhile, the US media appears to be unwilling to shed light on new exposes related to President Biden and his son. The established media has shifted focus onto Donald Trump's indictments. Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers, conservative pundits and legal experts aren't letting the Biden "corruption scandal" be swept under the rug. Time will tell whether Hunter's case will affect his father's re-election bid or whether Team Biden will prevail with yet another damage control operation.