Former President Donald Trump has announced his intention to pardon Devon Archer, a former business associate and close friend of Hunter Biden, who played a key role in exposing the Biden family’s foreign business dealings. Archer, who was convicted in 2022 for his role in a fraudulent bond issuance scheme, will receive a full pardon from Trump, the former president confirmed to New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
“He’s getting a full pardon,” Trump stated. “He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people.”
Archer, who met with Trump over the weekend at the NCAA wrestling championships, expressed gratitude for the decision. “I want to extend my deepest thanks to President Trump,” he told the Post. “I am grateful to the president for recognizing that I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me.”
Archer’s Legal Battle and Biden Connections
Archer was convicted in connection with a 2015 scheme involving a Native American tribal bond fraud worth $60 million. Although he fought his sentence for years, he ultimately received a one-year-and-one-day prison term in 2022. Archer has long claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated, blaming the Biden family and their allies in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) for targeting him while leaving Hunter Biden untouched.
Hunter Biden, despite his ties to Archer and the fraudulent bond scheme, was never charged in the case. Archer accused the Biden family of leveraging their political influence to protect Hunter while allowing his associates to bear the legal consequences. “Like so many people, my life was devastated by the Biden family’s selfish disregard for the truth,” Archer said. “The Bidens talk about justice, but they don’t mean it.”
Trump’s History of High-Profile Pardons
Trump’s decision to pardon Archer follows a pattern of high-profile pardons during his second term. Earlier this year, he controversially ordered the SDNY to drop a federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D). Additionally, Trump granted clemency to 1,500 January 6th defendants and 23 jailed pro-life activists.
Archer’s Role in the Biden Family Business Scandal
In 2023, Archer provided critical testimony before the House Oversight Committee as part of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s role in his son’s foreign business dealings. Archer, a former board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and co-founder of investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, detailed Hunter Biden’s efforts to leverage his father’s political influence.
During his testimony, Archer recalled two key business dinners at Washington D.C.’s elite Café Milano—one in 2014 attended by Russian oligarch Elena Baturina and another in 2015 featuring Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi. Archer also revealed that Hunter Biden placed his father on speakerphone during business meetings at least 20 times, contradicting Joe Biden’s repeated claims of having no involvement in his son’s business dealings.
The impeachment inquiry further uncovered that foreign entities paid Hunter Biden and his associates over $27 million from Ukraine, China, and Romania during and after Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
Hunter Biden’s Legal Troubles and Joe Biden’s Last-Minute Pardons
Hunter Biden faced his own legal challenges in recent years, pleading guilty to federal tax-evasion charges in California in September 2023. In a separate case, he was convicted in Delaware for purchasing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine and lying about it on federal paperwork.
Despite previously insisting he would not intervene, Joe Biden pardoned his son in December 2024, just weeks before leaving office. The move sparked bipartisan criticism, with many accusing Biden of using his final days in power to shield his family from prosecution. On his last day in office, Biden also pardoned other family members who were at risk of legal scrutiny under the incoming Trump administration.
The Political Fallout
Trump’s decision to pardon Archer is likely to fuel further debate over political prosecutions and the use of presidential clemency. Supporters argue that Archer was unfairly targeted as part of a broader effort to suppress whistleblowers exposing Biden family corruption. Critics, however, see it as another example of Trump using his power to rewrite the legal consequences for political allies.
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