An Afterword: What Was Hunter Doing?

One follow up, which emphasizes the point that the Washington bureaucracy -- or most bureaucracies, really -- is much larger than Republican conspiracists recognize.  Hunter Biden has been much criticized for taking a job with Burisma that paid approximately $50,000 per month for minimal work.  His detractors acknowledge that Hunter is by no means unique.  The powerful and well-connected, offspring of leading politicians in countries across the world see doors open for them because of their family ties.  

An excellent article in the New Yorker pointed out that a weak country being invaded by its more powerful neighbor and heavily dependent on the US for assistance is not realistically going to prosecute any company with a US Vice President's son on the board of directors.  Perhaps Hunter was naive on this score, but his father had no such excuse and should have warned his son to stay away.

Nonetheless, Congress's recent deposition of Hunter's business partner, Devon Archer has shed some light on what Hunter was actually doing for Burisma.  And it appears that Hunter was doing some actual work and rendering services that had some value.  Hunter knew nothing at all about oil and gas, but a great deal about how to navigate Washington.  Hunter's role was access peddling. Archer has been much quoted as saying Hunter was selling "the illusion of access" to his father, but he was also offering plenty of lower level, more mundane sorts of access, such as knowing what public relations firm to hire, or who to approach in Washington to get things done.  Is it any surprise that a man who was only two years old when his father was elected to the Senate knows a great deal about the ins and outs of Washington, DC and how to network.

It seems fair to assume that networking of this kind had real value to Burisma.  It also seems fair to assume that what Burisma paid for it was grossly disproportionate to the actual work Hunter was doing, and that Hunter was engaging in what economists call rent seeking behavior.  And many people would no doubt consider it corrupt.  It is also true, however, that the definition of corruption in such cases can be extremely broad.  Is all networking corrupt?  Is it corrupt for personal relationships to enter into business decisions and not just cold, hard considerations of the bottom line?  People who seek to exclude such things are essentially saying that human nature itself is corrupt, and that we should be ruled by computers.

Other points that Archer made:

• He (Archer) ran a company, Burisma Eurasia, with 50 employees that made servicing contracts in Kazakhstan and bought drills in Texas.  This was a real company and not a shell. He also mentioned a company called Rosemont Realty with over 300 employees.  
• Earnings were divided three ways
• Hunter was eager to take credit for his father's actions but made clear that he did not control his father.  He was selling the "Biden brand."
• There was constant "pressure" on Burisma, but he did not attribute it specifically to Shokin. Hunter would call to "Washington" for help, but mostly he was calling lobbyists.  Hunter was an experienced lobbyist.*
• Hunter talked on the phone to his father every day and often had business associated with him and introduced them to his father.  The conversations did not consist more than a vague exchange of pleasantries.  (Republicans have made much of the existence of these conversations and called into question Archer's statement that they had no substance).
• Archer was "spun a narrative" that Shokin was protecting Burisma.  This narrative came mostly from Washington lobbyists and public relations people than from Ukrainian business associates.  Archer seemed skeptical, but did not know either way.  He also recalled Biden meeting associates at charity dinners and talking more than five minute and less than three hours, but without any real substance.
• Hunter and Archer both attended a Burisma Board of Directors meeting in Dubai on December 4, 2015.  Burisma was feeling "pressure" over the $23 million under dispute in London and over being denied visas to visit the US or Mexico.  CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and his associate Vadym asked Hunter to make a call to "Washington," which Hunter did. The call lasted more than 5 minutes and less than an hour.  Archer did not hear the conversation.  He believes it was to lobbyists, but Hunter definitely also called his father.  Naturally the Republicans made much of this call and pointed out that Biden visited Ukraine later in December.  Not mentioned -- the visit was planned before the phone call.
• There was also discussion of Rosemont Realty, a company Hunter Biden did not belong to, nonetheless buying Hunter an expensive car.
• He denied any knowledge of a $5 million bribe paid to Hunter and "another Biden" and said that he believed he would be the "other Biden."  So there is some self-interest here.
• There were a lot of mind-numbing financial details.

In short, Devon Archer was far from a neutral witness and had his own motives to exculpate himself, but he did not testify to anything incriminating, unless one counts the phone call after the Dubai meeting.

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*One possible charge against Hunter Biden is failing to register as an agent for a foreign entity.