Members of Congress pay consultants a lot of money for expert advice. But today, as a former political consultant, I want to offer two bits of expert advice — for free — to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
First words of advice: Before you release any document publicly, be sure to read it carefully. Otherwise, you may be mortifyingly embarrassed, as both Comer and Jordan were last week.
For two years, Comer and Jordan promised to prove that Hunter Biden was engaged in criminal activity in his business relations with Ukraine and China. And not just Hunter, but also his father, then-vice president Joe Biden. Together, Comer called them the “Biden crime family.”
Finally, last week, with grand fanfare, Comer scheduled their big show-and-tell — a congressional hearing featuring Devon Archer, Hunter’s former business partner, as star witness. And even though the hearing was held behind closed doors, Comer released the transcript of the hearing — which he and Jordan immediately claimed established the Bidens’ guilt once and for all.
“Well, every day, this bribery scandal becomes more credible,” Comer told Fox News.
Oops! There’s only one problem. Either Comer and Jordan weren’t listening to Archer’s testimony or they didn’t read the transcript before releasing it. Because the transcript shows that not only did Archer provide no evidence of illegal actions by Joe or Hunter, he directly contradicted five claims the two chairmen had been making against them.
One. Joe Biden never discussed business matters on the phone with Hunter. Yes, Archer admitted, Hunter Biden did get his father on the phone “some 20 times” during meetings with officials of Burisma, the energy company on which both Hunter and Archer sat as board members. But there was no discussion of business. “It was, you know,” Archer said, “just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general about the geography, and the weather, whatever it may be.”
Two. Joe Biden never altered U.S. policy to help Hunter’s business deals. “I have no basis to know if he altered policy to benefit his son,” Archer testified. “I have no knowledge.”
Three. Hunter Biden never expressly promised that his father could deliver anything. Yes, Archer testified, Hunter made sure everyone knew who his father was, he put him on phone calls, he sold the Biden family “brand,” but he never “overtly” told business associates he could or would use his father’s influence for any specific purpose.
Four. Joe Biden never discussed business at two Washington dinners he attended with Hunter and business associates. Describing the first, a birthday celebration at Café Milano, Archer told the committee: “He came to dinner, and we ate and kind of talked about the world, I guess, and the weather, and then everybody —everybody left.”
Five. Devon Archer dismissed allegations of bribery raised repeatedly by Comer and Jordan. Did Burisma pay Joe and Hunter $5 million each? So far as he knew, Archer said, it never happened.
In sum, instead of proving the House Republicans’ case against Joe and Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, under oath, destroyed it. It’s time for Comer and Jordan to fold their tent and move on.
Which brings me to my second words of advice: If their goal is to expose a major “crime family,” Comer and Jordan are looking in the wrong place. There’s another family nearby in which the father’s been charged with 78 crimes and he and two sons have been charged with widespread financial fraud. Their last name’s not Biden. It’s Trump.
Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”