Joe Biden letter to Devon Archer underscores his closeness to Hunter Biden's business activities

A letter from then-Vice President Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's former friend and business partner, Devon Archer, underscores his closeness to his son's business activities. 

In a widely discussed 2011 letter, which Fox News Digital has also obtained, Biden thanked Archer for attending an event where he hosted then-Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday," Biden wrote to Archer. "I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu. I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter. I hope you enjoyed the lunch. Thanks for coming."

Biden then included a handwritten note: "Happy you guys are together."

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Hunter was also at the State Department luncheon that Archer attended, and Fox News Digital previously reported that Hunter used that event as a networking opportunity to help one of his firm's clients secure an event at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said the letter's content further demonstrates how Biden had knowledge of and "connections" with his son's dealings.

"Remember, two and a half years ago, we had a former business partner, [Tony] Bobulinski, say that the email from the laptop … said '10% for the big guy,'" Jordan told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum last Thursday.

"He says, 'the big guy is Joe Biden.' We have the piece of evidence you just talked about there – this note from 2011. We have the WhatsApp messages."

Biden and his White House aides have frequently maintained that the president has never discussed business dealings with his son, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.

The House Ways and Means Committee released testimony in June from two IRS whistleblowers who said Justice Department, FBI and IRS officials interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden and that prosecutorial decisions were "influenced by politics."

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One of the whistleblowers, IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, said Hunter Biden invoked his father to pressure a Chinese business partner while discussing deals. Shapley oversaw the IRS probe into the president's son and said the agency obtained a July 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter to Harvest Fund Management CEO Henry Zhao in which Hunter alleged that he was with his father in order to pressure Zhao to satisfy a pledge.

"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter wrote in the WhatsApp message to Zhao, according to the documents. "Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight."

"And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction," Hunter said.

Top House Republicans have described the WhatsApp messages as a "shakedown" by the Biden family. Photos from Hunter Biden's laptop show he was at the then-vice president's home in Delaware at the same time as the messages, Fox News Digital reported previously reported.

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The whistleblower testimony came to light almost a year after reports surfaced on an alleged voicemail from President Biden to Hunter in which he purportedly discussed his son's international business dealings.

"Hey, pal, it's Dad. It's 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you have a chance, give me a call. Nothing urgent – I just wanted to talk with you," Biden is heard saying in a voicemail from 2018. "I thought the article released online, it's going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you're clear."

The article Biden was referring to in the voicemail was published by the New York Times in December 2018 and documented a private meeting between the chairman of a now-defunct Chinese energy company, CEFC, and Hunter Biden at a Miami hotel in May 2017.

Fox News Digital reported Monday that Hunter's former friend and longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, visited the Obama White House and then-Vice President Biden's residence at least 36 times during the Obama administration, including at least 15 receptions at Biden's residence and a one-on-one meeting with Biden in 2010.

And last week, Archer confirmed that then-Vice President Biden was at the infamous spring 2015 dinner with son Hunter's foreign business associates, despite the Biden campaign repeatedly saying Biden was never there.

Congressional investigators had asked Archer about the dinner mentioned in a 2020 New York Post report, which occurred at Washington, D.C.'s, upscale restaurant Cafe Milano in 2015. The story revolved around an April 2015 email from Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi, who had written to Hunter Biden the day after the dinner to thank him for inviting him to the nation's capital and allowing him to meet his father and spend "some time together."

Hunter had served on Burisma's board and reportedly collected more than $50,000 per month.

According to the transcript, the investigators asked Archer who attended that spring 2015 dinner.

"That dinner was – I think we went over it before, but it was Vadym, Hunter, Joe, myself, Karim Massimov, a Greek Orthodox priest, maybe someone from World Food Programme," Archer said.

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"And what did Joe do at that dinner? Did he have dinner? How long was he there?" the congressional investigator asked Archer.

"He had dinner," Archer responded. "And there was – on that one, I believe the first one was, like, a birthday dinner, and then the second was – I think we were supposed to talk about the World Food Programme. So, there was some talk about that."

The White House did not respond to multiple past Fox News Digital requests for comment on Biden and their repeated insistence that he did not discuss business deals with Hunter as the narrative has come into question.

Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz, Cameron Cawthorne and Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting.