The House Oversight Committee heard jailhouse testimony from Hunter Biden business associate Jason Galanis on Friday as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with Townhall obtaining a copy of his opening statement. That statement contained many stunning revelations, including as it pertains to the influence of the Biden family name, but also how the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration has been weaponized.
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Early in his testimony, Galanis was clear that he believes the value Hunter brought to their business dealings was his name name. "The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden. Because of this access, I agreed to contribute equity ownership to them – Hunter and Devon [Archer] – for no out-of-pocket cost from them in exchange for their 'relationship capital,'" Galanis said, speaking about a fellow business partner.
This was not the first red flag Galanis mentioned, as he said he had been advised by his business partner "to stay away from Hunter," though he still "agreed to become equity partners with Hunter and Devon in building the Burnham group," with Hunter serving as vice chairman.
Galanis shared that he worked with Hunter and Archer from 2012-2015, during which time they acquired Burnham & Co, described as "the $1.5 surviving division of Drexel Burnham Lambert," as he also added that "combining that with other businesses in insurance and wealth management we owned and acquired with total audited assets of over $17 billion." Galanis said their goal "was to make billions, not millions."
Burnham was also described as "the focal point for integrating a 'Biden Family Office' into a large-scale financial company with international influence."
In 2014, Galanis, Hunter, and Archer decided that Burnham would "be significantly enhanced" by a partnership with Harvest Fund Management, described as "a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party." Hunter's contact with Harvest's chairman, Henry Zhao, led such an effort to expand a relationship with the Chinese.
And the Biden family name played a role. "Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burnham-Harvest team post-vice presidency, providing political access in the United States and around the world," Galanis testified.
In his testimony, Galanis also spoke of an email draft provided by his attorney. Fox News, which also reported on the opening statement, has more details, providing photos of the email in question.
As Fox News mentioned:
Galanis pointed to a draft email dated Aug. 23, 2014, from Hunter Biden, which states: "Please also remind Henry [Zhao] of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. Devon and I golfed with that relation earlier last week and we discussed this very idea again and as always he remains very very keen on the opportunity."
Fox News Digital obtained that draft email.
Galanis testified that email was "struck from the final version" but "was drafted with an understanding of what had transpired regarding this effort."
Galanis said the email was forwarded to him by Devon Archer with the words: "FYI … example of lean in on Henry from Hunter … this is email drafted for him to send to Henry."
Galanis testified that the words "lean in" were "used often by Devon and Hunter in our business dealings as a term for access to Vice President Biden’s political influence."
"As Devon Archer is mentioned as a direct party to the conversation with the vice president on the golf course, it is clear from his email that Devon believed this was an accurate representation of that conversation," Galanis said in his opening statement.
"I am certain that the phrase ‘a certain relation of mine’ refers to Vice President Biden, and Devon told me about this conversation on the golf course shortly after it happened," Galanis testified. "And it was one of many conversations that I understood the vice president had expressing his willingness to join Harvest board after his vice presidency."
The draft email does not specifically mention Joe Biden’s name or refer to the "certain relation" as Hunter Biden’s father. However, there is an infamous photo of Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on the golf course. That photo was taken in mid-August 2014, which would have been a week or so prior to the draft email. News reports indicate the vice president was in the Hamptons at the time.
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Galanis' testimony continued to mention Joe Biden. For instance, Zhao "regularly sought reassurance," Galanis shared, about "the 'intangible goods' that Vice President Biden serving on the Harvest board would bring to the business plan." This is so he would "not 'lose face.'"
"In my opinion, there was no other reason for this massive Chinese enterprise to have been interested in doing business with Burnham other than the Biden name," Galanis also shared.
Joe Biden ultimately did not take a seat on that board.
Galanis also mentioned another name we've heard before, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, who wired $3.5 million to Hunter and Archer on February 14, 2014. She also met with then Vice President Biden at Cafe Milano for dinners in 2014 and 2015.
In his testimony, Galanis described a call that took place on May 4, 2014 in which Galanis said he "heard Hunter call his father regarding business matters," and that he did so with the call being put on speaker. Baturina, who was an investor in Rosemont projects, her husband Yuri Luzhkov, who was the former Mayor of Moscow, and Archer were also there. The call took place at Romanoff's, a restaurant in Brooklyn.
"It was clear to me this was a pre-arranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of his position," Galanis said about the call.
"During the May 4th party, we were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father. Hunter called his father, said hello and 'hold on, Pops,' then put the call on speakerphone and said, 'I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello,'" Galanis described. "The Vice President said hello and some pleasantries of 'Hope you had safe travels,' and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, 'Ok then, you be good to my boy.' Hunter responded by saying, 'Everything is good, and we are moving ahead.' The Vice President said something about 'being helpful,' and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later."
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Galanis also said in his testimony that he was "stunned by this call – to actually hear the Vice President of the United States speaking on the phone," which was when he brought up how the call was "pre-arranged."
A few days after that meeting, on May 9, Archer sent Galanis an email confirming that Baturina was "committed to a 'hard order' of "$10-20 million in a Burnham investment banking client." The Fox News article also included a copy of that email.
The testimony took a dark turn when Galanis mentioned how he was serving time after pleading guilty to securities fraud. "Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union members’ pension fund money whose trust I betrayed," he shared in his testimony. He's so far served eight years of a 14-year sentence.
What Galanis detailed was not only a prosecutorial strategy he says he believes was meant to protect the Bidens, but allegations of sexual assault he says he experienced from a guard at the Federal Prison Camp at Pensacola.
"I accepted that I committed these crimes and deserved a lengthy sentence for my conduct, even offering from the time of my plea to provide the prosecutors at the US Attorney Office in the Southern District of New York with any information that would assist in a thorough disclosure of the fraudulent conduct of all parties," Galanis shared, though the offer "was rejected."
"Especially because I was not asking for any reduction in the charges or sentence, my attorney at the time told me the rejection was highly irregular," Galanis said about such a development. "As I reviewed the facts, I realized the prosecutors in the SDNY had gone lightly on Devon Archer and had not indicted Hunter Biden at all, despite then-available documentation that we were partners, were involved in the decision making that involved illegal self-dealing, and all of us had financially benefited from these schemes."
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Archer was convicted and sought appeals, but is still facing a prison sentence of one-year and one-day, Fox News mentioned.
"I believe the SDNY’s prosecution strategy was intended to protect Hunter Biden, and ultimately Vice President Biden," Galanis testified.
Due to his "concerns regarding this unequal treatment," Galanis says he submitted a Petition for Commutation with the DOJ in December 2020. "I filed this request after the 2020 election, and I knew if this was not granted, I could face the wrath of the incoming Biden Administration, including the Department of Justice," he noted.
Although Galanis says that his CARES Act home confinement request was approved on June 9, 2023, that approval was reversed on June 13, the day after the Oversight Committee announced they were issuing a subpoena to Archer.
Once more, the SDNY came up in Galanis' testimony. "I understand from a former high-ranking Bureau of Prison official that SDNY prosecutors aggressively weighed in with the Bureau of Prisons staff to oppose my release," Galanis shared. "As a result of this DOJ intervention, I was denied home confinement."
While Galanis said he "formally appealed the reversal," the reasons for the denial kept changing. "I was treated differently," Galanis testified, compared to other prisoners going through the process.
Galanis had sought home confinement as a form of protection against the sexual assault he alleged in his testimony he experienced from "a member of the prison staff at FPC Pensacola" starting in January 2023. Galanis involved a chaplain and warden, and after the warden opened an investigation and after evaluations and debriefings, he was "immediately escorted to a vehicle and driven by senior staff several hours to FPC Montgomery."
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"I believe that based on the events I have described, much of which is memorialized in writing, I have been the victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice in order to prevent my home confinement, which would have allowed full and free access to Congressional investigators," Galanis said towards the end of his testimony.
As part of his closing, Galanis brought it directly back to the Bidens. "From the experiences that I have had in the criminal justice system, I believe I am putting myself at grave risk within the [Federal Bureau of Prisons] for providing information on these matters concerning the President and his son," he shared.
The House Oversight Committee X account on Friday also summarized some key findings of the statement as highlighted in the Fox News article.
🚨 FOX NEWS: Witness Jason Galanis testifies Hunter Biden put his father, then-VP Joe Biden, on speakerphone with Russian oligarch
“…Galanis testified that call was "not the only time" he heard Hunter "call his father regarding business matters," pointing to a separate call in…
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