New Transcript: Star Hunter Biden Witness Refuted Every GOP Talking Point

Republicans’ latest key witness in their investigation into the Biden family’s supposed corruption actually said the exact opposite of everything the GOP has alleged.

The House Oversight Committee on Thursday released a transcript of testimony from Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, who gave a nearly five-hour interview in a closed-door session earlier this week. The hearing was the latest phase of Republicans’ months-long investigation into the Bidens, which has yet to produce any actual evidence. The GOP has accused Joe and Hunter Biden of influence peddling and accepting bribes.

Oversight Chair James Comer, who has spearheaded the investigation, has called Archer a “hero” and insisted for the past week that the businessman would prove that Joe Biden was directly involved in corrupt business practices. Other Republicans, including Nancy Mace, also claimed Archer would unequivocally prove how corrupt Biden is. But the hearing transcript shows nothing could have been further from the truth.

Republicans have insisted that an FBI report that contains unverified information and relies on a Rudy Giuliani conspiracy theory proves the Bidens accepted bribes from Burisma executive Mykola Zlochevsky.

“If someone were to conclude from this that this [form] is evidence … that Joe Biden was bribed by Mykola Zlochevsky, would you disagree with that conclusion?” Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, asked at one point.

“Yeah, I would,” Archer answered.

Schwartz also asked if Archer knew of any wrongdoing by the president.

“No, I’m not aware of any,” Archer replied.

Instead, throughout his testimony, Archer repeatedly stated that Biden was never involved in his son’s business and Hunter never asked his father to step in. Although the two men spoke often, it was either small talk or to catch up.

Archer said that Hunter tried to make himself seem more impressive by giving the impression that he could sway his father, then vice president, in certain directions. But nothing ever actually happened. Archer compared it to the anonymous source in the FBI form, who accused the Bidens of accepting bribes but then said that it’s common for Ukrainian businessmen to “brag or show-off.”

“As such, CHS is not able to provide any further opinion as to the veracity of Zlochevsky’s aforementioned statements,” the document concluded.

Archer explained that “people send signals and those signals are basically used as currency. And that’s kind of how a lot of D.C. operators and foreign tycoons and businessmen work.”

None of that stopped Comer from appearing on Fox News Monday night, though, and blatantly lying. “Every day this bribery scandal becomes more credible,” he said.

Comer claimed that Archer “said Hunter Biden was under immense pressure while serving on the Burisma board to get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired,” referring to Viktor Shokin, who was fired in 2016 for corruption.

He made similar claims on Fox News the following night. But everything he said was completely contradicted by Archer’s testimony.

Maybe Comer would have known that had he actually attended his own hearing.

Ron DeSantis has promised to start “slitting throats on day one” if he’s elected president.

“We’re going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one,” the Florida governor told New Hampshire voters on Sunday, during what was supposed to be a chill barbecue event.

For the most part, his message went over OK, New Hampshire Public Radio reported, but not everyone was a fan of the “slitting throats” word choice.

“If I was in charge of his P.R., I would have said, ‘Don’t use that terminology,’” one Republican primary voter from Portsmouth, who called himself a “Sununu Republican,” told NHPR.

This isn’t the first time DeSantis has used this terrifying choice of words. Last week, during an interview with the right-wing outlet Real America’s Voice, DeSantis said he wanted a defense secretary who was ready to “slit some throats” and change the Defense Department’s hierarchy.

“You know, they may have to slit some throats. And it’s a lot harder to do that if these are people that you’ve trained with in the past or that you know,” DeSantis said. “So we’re going to have somebody out there, you know, be very firm, very strong, but they are going to make sure that we have the best people in the best positions, and there’s not going to be necessarily prior relationships that would cloud that judgment.”

DeSantis is in the midst of a campaign reboot, as he continues to trail Donald Trump by a wide margin. A New York Times/Siena College poll published Monday found Trump is crushing every other candidate in the race. Even when voters were given fewer options and told to imagine a two-person Republican primary race between Trump and DeSantis, 62 percent of Republican voters picked Trump, compared to just 31 percent for DeSantis.

Last week, DeSantis fired more than a third of his campaign as part of a desperate attempt to reset things.

The Manhattan district attorney is officially allowed to use Donald Trump’s deposition from his sexual assault trial, meaning that the most devastating testimony in the upcoming trial over alleged hush-money payments could come from the former president himself.

Alvin Bragg indicted Trump in April, charging him with 34 counts for business fraud for his role in alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Bragg asked Monday if he could use Trump’s deposition from his civil trial with writer E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was found liable for sexual abuse.

And on Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the Carroll trial, granted that request.

In his deposition in the Carroll case, Trump defends the infamous Access Hollywood tape, a 2005 recording of the show in which he brags about being able to “grab” women “by the pussy” whenever he wants because he is famous. When asked about it during deposition for the Carroll case, Trump said, “Well, historically, that’s true with stars. Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately, or fortunately.”

Bragg argued that the Access Hollywood tape shows “the way in which [Trump] dealt with allegations of a sexual nature by women in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.” Bragg could use the testimony to prove that Trump could and would do anything to avoid prosecution for his behavior.

Trump was unanimously found liable in May for sexual abuse and battery against Carroll in the mid-1990s and for defaming her in 2022 while denying the assault. Trump did not testify during the trial, but his depositions proved her case all the same. Carroll also has another defamation lawsuit pending against Trump.

Presidential candidate Cornel West, who has spent most of his career advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy, owes the IRS more than half a million dollars in unpaid taxes.

Throughout his decades in the public eye, West, who is an academic at elite institutions and a bestselling author, has blasted the concentration of wealth at the top of U.S. society. Since announcing his run for president, first on the People’s Party ticket and currently on the Green Party’s, he has argued that taxes on the wealthiest Americans need to be “higher, much higher.”

But West hasn’t been putting his money where his mouth is—literally. An investigation by The Daily Beast, published Thursday, found that West owes $543,778.78 in unpaid taxes. The Beast cited tax filings in Mercer County, New Jersey, where West owns a house in the town of Princeton, and in Los Angeles, where West’s personal attorney is.

The IRS has filed liens against West for the years 2005, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, when he failed to pay anywhere from more than $62,000 to nearly $137,000 in taxes. The liens, or federal claims against property for unpaid debts, are all still open.

Federal liens don’t officially close until 30 days after the debt has been paid, so it’s possible West has paid some of his taxes within the past few weeks or has set up a payment plan. But West offered no such explanation to the Beast. Instead, he denied that he hadn’t paid his taxes and said his accountant would provide more information. The accountant never reached out.

This is apparently not new behavior for West. By 2004, he had accumulated $724,397.26 in liens over the previous six years. He didn’t pay the balance until 2010. In 2012, he paid $34,069.93 in taxes owed for the year 2008.

Documents form California show that West owed $46,904.57 in taxes for 2011 and $112,449.79 in taxes for 2012. He didn’t resolve these liens until two months ago, about a week after he announced he was running for president.

West also has yet to pay a 2003 child support payment of $49,500.

These revelations are an important reminder to West, or anyone thinking of running for public office. Campaigning can be all fun and games, as it lets you travel around the country and spread your chosen message. Donors give you money or throw fancy parties for you.

But it also means that you are subjected to more intense scrutiny than ever before. If you have a single skeleton in your closet, it will be found.

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr destroyed Donald Trump’s argument that he shouldn’t be indicted a third time because he was only using his First Amendment rights.

Trump was charged Tuesday for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He faces four counts that include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to corruptly obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote. Among his legal team’s many wild defenses is that the former president is being attacked for exercising his right to free speech.

But Barr quickly dismantled that defense. “I really don’t think that’s a valid argument,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday night. “As the indictment says, they’re not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better.”

“But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy,” Barr continued. “All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. So free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”

Barr also warned that the Justice Department likely has “a lot more” evidence to come, and the indictment on Thursday is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

“That’s one of the things that impressed me about the indictment,” said Barr. “It was very spare, and there were a lot of things he could have said in there, and I think there’s a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.”

Trump is due to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C., just the latest in a long string of various legal troubles. The twice-impeached president has been charged with business fraud in New York for his alleged role in making hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. He was also charged with keeping national defense information without authorization, making false statements, and conspiring to obstruct justice.

Trump is likely to be indicted in Georgia in the next few weeks for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election—despite a failed attempt to block that probe. And he has been found liable of sexual abuse and defamation, and sued for defamation again.