Burisma Was Pressed to Take Down Photo of Then-VP Joe Biden From Website

President Joe Biden speaks at an Arcosa Wind Towers Inc. manufacturing facility in Belen, N.M., on Aug. 9, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Emails from the infamous Hunter Biden laptop show that he and his business associates once told Ukrainian energy firm Burisma to remove a picture of then-Vice President Joe Biden from its website.

Archived images of an email exchange dating back to May 2014 show that Eric Schwerin, a business associate at Mr. Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, was contacted by then-Vice President Biden’s counsel Demetra Lambros with the photograph takedown request.

“There is apparently a photo of Devon and the VP on Burisma’s website (I can’t see it—the website isn’t working very well right now) but Demetra (VP Counsel) called and asked that we tell Burisma they [need] to take it down,” Mr. Schwerin wrote, per the email.

“Devon” in the email refers to Devon Archer, the former business partner of Mr. Hunter Biden, who is President Joe Biden’s son. Mr. Archer served alongside Mr. Hunter Biden on Burisma’s board of directors.

The justification for the takedown request, per Mr. Schwerin, was that “legally they aren’t comfortable with the VP’s picture being up on the site as what seems like an endorsement.”

Mr. Archer replied to Mr. Schwerin’s email to report action had been taken as requested.

“Hunter got the call, and it’s down. Was put up without authorization,” Mr. Archer wrote.

The matter of then-Vice President Biden’s photograph being featured on—and then taken down from—the now-defunct Burisma website comes amid ongoing controversy over his alleged involvement in his son’s, Hunter Biden’s, foreign business dealings.

The White House has repeatedly denied that the president had any involvement in his son’s business affairs.

Involvement in Son’s Business Dealings?

While on the campaign trail, then-presidential candidate Mr. Joe Biden insisted that he had no role whatsoever in his son’s business dealings.

However, that assertion has been repeatedly challenged—first by the revelations of the contents of Mr. Hunter Biden’s laptop, then by statements made by his former business associate Tony Bobulinski, and most recently by a number of bombshell disclosures made by Mr. Archer in Congressional testimony and in media interviews.

Mr. Archer, who was Mr. Hunter Biden’s business partner at Rosemont Seneca, testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a closed-door session on July 31. During his testimony, Mr. Archer said that the president had spoken to his son’s business associates on multiple occasions.

Republicans saw this as proof that the president lied when he denied involvement in his son’s business dealings.

The president’s supporters, by contrast, insisted the conversations amounted to “casual” small talk and that, at most, Mr. Hunter Biden had peddled the “illusion of access” to his father rather than the real deal.

“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said at a press briefing on July 31.

“Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question [of] what else he is hiding from the American people,” he added.

‘Illusion of Access’

The president’s Democrat allies, meanwhile, sought to downplay the significance of Mr. Archer’s testimony.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) told reporters after the panel interviewed Mr. Archer on July 31 that the president had engaged in “casual conversation” with his son’s business associates “20 times over the course of a 10-year relationship” between Mr. Archer and Mr. Hunter Biden.

Mr. Goldman insisted that the president’s comments during these conversations were no more than greetings and small talk, amounting to “casual conversation, niceties, the weather, what’s going on.”

He said that “there wasn’t a single conversation about any of the business dealings.”

Mr. Goldman added Mr. Hunter Biden spoke with his father on a daily basis and would sometimes put him on speakerphone to “say hello to whoever he happened to be caught at dinner with.”

Mr. Hunter Biden at most sold the “illusion of access” to Mr. Joe Biden, according to Mr. Goldman.

However, a subsequently released transcript of Mr. Archer’s interview with the panel (pdf) shows that the notion of  “illusion of access” was not something Mr. Archer fully agreed with.

“Is it fair to say that Hunter Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father?” Mr. Goldman asked, per the transcript.

“Yes,” Mr. Archer replied.

“So when you talk about selling the brand, it’s not about selling access to his father. It’s about selling the illusion of access to his father. Is that fair?” Mr. Goldman asked.

“That’s almost fair,” Mr. Archer replied.

“Why almost fair?” Mr. Goldman said.

“Because there are touch points and contact points that I can’t deny that happened,” Mr. Archer replied. “There were communications.”

‘Categorically False’

Following his testimony before the congressional panel, Mr. Archer sat down for an interview with Tucker Carlson.

In an installment of the interview released on Aug. 4., Mr. Carlson noted that much of the spin applied to Mr. Archer’s closed-door testimony before lawmakers earlier in the week has basically been that “there’s no corruption here at all, this is totally normal, Joe Biden had no role whatsoever in his son’s business or knowledge of it.”

“That seems false,” Mr. Carlson mused.

“Yeah, that’s categorically false,” Mr. Archer stated emphatically before providing more details.

“He was aware of Hunter’s business, he met with Hunter’s business partners,” Mr. Archer said. He insisted that the claim that the president was in no way involved in his son’s business affairs is “not factually right.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.