(New York Post) Then-Vice President Joe Biden told his son Hunter’s former business associate Devon Archer in early 2011 that he was “happy” the two were partners — in a postscript to a note thanking Archer for attending a lunch with visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao.
“I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday. I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu,” Biden told Archer in the letter dated Jan. 20, 2011.
“I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter. I hope you enjoyed lunch. Thanks for coming,” the missive concluded.
Biden, who maintains he has never discussed business with his son, attached a handwritten note to the letter: “P.S. Happy you guys are together,” an apparent reference to their Rosemont Seneca Partners investment firm.
Archer shared the letter with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as part of an interview published Wednesday and The Post also acquired a copy of the note.
“What was he thanking you for?” Carlson asked Archer, who on Monday answered questions behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee about his work with Hunter Biden to court wealthy figures in China, Russia and Ukraine while Joe Biden was vice president.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden told Devon Archer in a letter that he was “happy” Archer and his son Hunter Biden were “together.”Tucker Carlson/Twitter
Biden also mentioned in the letter that he hopes to “get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter.”Tucker Carlson/Twitter
“First of all, it’s a lovely letter,” Archer answered. “Listen, it was kind of the beginning of our partnership and he was thanking me and thanking Hunter, I think, at the end of the day for bringing this idea of this government-regulatory-strategic-advisory business into the private equity world. And I think he was excited for the prospects for Hunter and he was just thanking [me], and I think it was a nice gesture.”
“It was a nice gesture for sure. Very polite. It gets a 10 on the etiquette scale,” Carlson agreed, adding: “But he’s vice president of the United States and he’s talking about foreign business deals with you and thanking you for that.”
“I think I — at the time, I think I hit the jackpot in finding the regulatory environment or company that can navigate right to the top,” Archer reflected. “But, you know, obviously, as time has told, being a little bit too close to the sun ends up burning you.”
“These are not business guys,” Carlson pressed. “This is the vice president of the United States. He’s not allowed to be working on businesses with foreign governments while he’s vice president, I don’t think.”
“Not that I know of,” Archer deadpanned.
“But here he is!” a near-hysterical Carlson exclaimed, to which Archer answered: “Right.”
Hunter and Archer were crafting plans for international ventures ahead of the 2011 lunch with the Chinese president and Hunter specifically recommended that his new partner be on the guest list, according to emails released in May by the National Archives in response to transparency litigation.
In a Nov. 18, 2010, email to another associate, Eric Schwerin, Hunter recommended that an invite be extended to Archer — after Schwerin said vice presidential office aide Michele Smith “called and said they would like some suggested names for the lunch. They have 30 spots for the VP’s personal list.”
Less than a week later, Archer emailed Hunter a list of “sovereign targets.”
The letter came after Archer attended a luncheon for visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2011.Tucker Carlson/Twitter
“What are your off the cuff thoughts on foreign target countries? Based on both your core relationships and your gut on likelihood of success? ….For me its: China[,] Turkey[,] Mexico[,] Argentina[,] India[,] Columbia[,] Israel[,] Norway, Serbia, Singapore, Korea, Canada[,] Germany & Australia [and] Gulf Region,” Archer wrote.
Months earlier, in April 2010, Hunter and Archer flew to Beijing, accompanied by Secret Service, for meetings over three days with some of China’s most powerful state financial institutions.
Michael Lin and James Bulger — who would help Hunter launch the Chinese state-backed investment fund BHR Partners in 2013 — were part of those meetings. BHR was registered just 12 days after Hunter joined VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for a subsequent, official trip to Beijing.
Three months after the luncheon, in April 2011, Hunter and Archer traveled to China and Taiwan — where they met with reps from firms including state-owned China Life Insurance Company and the China Investment Corporation sovereign wealth fund.
Biden with Hu Jintao at the State Department luncheon on January 19, 2011.PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images
Around the same time, President Biden took a larger role in the Obama administration’s China policy, telling Beijing’s future leader Xi Jinping that August that: “You are our national affairs.”
During his interview with Carlson, Archer said that Hunter’s foreign consulting business was centered on helping clients understand and navigate the US “regulatory environment.”
“Understanding a regulatory environment means selling access, at the end of the day, and I think that’s how I think the most people working on Wall Street, whether they admit it or not, interpret it,” Archer said.
In that context, Archer went on, Hunter “was the guy who was the expert in knowing the guy.”
Archer and Hunter Biden traveled to China and Taiwan for meetings with several Chinese companies shortly before and after the luncheon.FOX News/Tucker Carlson Tonight
A transcript of Archer’s Monday testimony has not yet been released by the Oversight Committee, but members of the panel say he confirmed that Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone at least 20 times.
Those occasions included a Paris dinner with reps from a French energy company, Archer said, as well as when Hunter was in China with Jonathan Li of BHR Partners. Hunter introduced his father to Li in Beijing shortly before the firm’s official founding.
As part of a second Chinese business venture, Hunter and first brother James Biden received roughly $5 million from Chinese government-linked CEFC China Energy in 2017 and 2018, with the funds getting to Biden-linked bank accounts within days of Hunter firing off a threatening WhatsApp message warning a Chinese associate “I am sitting here with my father” and threatening revenge.
