House Republicans have suffered yet another series of setbacks in their investigation of Hunter Biden, as a key witness they want to interview repeatedly reschedules and blows off their requests to testify, Newsweek reported on Monday.
"[House Oversight Chairman James] Comer [(R-KY)] confirmed to Fox News that Devon Archer, a former Burisma board member and business partner of Hunter Biden's, canceled the deposition he was scheduled to attend on Monday, marking the third appearance Archer has failed to show for," reported Katherine Fung. "A spokesperson for [the] congressman told Newsweek that Archer has been scheduled to sit down for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight on Monday, July 31. The original deadline for Archer's deposition was June 16."
Republicans are trying to find evidence for unsubstantiated claims that President Joe Biden personally assisted Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his son, Hunter, sat on its board and Biden served as vice president. Some GOP figures, like Rudy Giuliani, have pushed conspiracy theories that Biden forced out Ukraine's top prosecutor to prevent an investigation of the company, but this has been repeatedly debunked — the prosecutor was actually forced out for not investigating corruption.
"Mr. Archer's testimony is critical to the Committee's investigation," wrote Comer in a letter last month to an attorney representing Archer, per the report. "Mr. Archer was Hunter Biden's business partner in a number of transactions involving foreign nationals and foreign companies. Mr. Archer is associated with corporate entities that the Committee has identified and the Biden family's role in each of them. Furthermore, he has significant information regarding the purpose of these companies and knowledge of relevant documents related to the Committee's investigation."
According to the report, this is the latest in some problems the GOP has faced in the Biden family investigations; another witness the GOP wanted to interview straight-up disappeared. Yet another was indicted on charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, only for the GOP to claim him as a credible witness some time after that.
All of this comes shortly after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) turned over an FBI investigation file congressional Republicans spent weeks fighting to obtain from the agency, which detailed the specifics of an interview with an indicted Burisma executive reiterating the claims about Shokin being forced out to protect Hunter Biden — but still offering no evidence of this.
Last week, Comer suggested that the reason the Republican House is coming after Biden is because Trump was impeached twice.
