The Justice Department denied that it tried to prevent Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, from testifying before Congress by requesting over the weekend that he report to prison.
Archer, who served as a board member for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings along with Hunter Biden, gave closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, implicating President Joe Biden of having knowledge of his son's business deals while vice president.
Speculation about witness intimidation grew on Saturday after the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to the judge overseeing Archer's fraud case that requested a date for him to report to prison. In a case unrelated to the Bidens, Archer was convicted last year of bilking a Native American tribe out of millions and sentenced to one year in prison.
In the letter to Judge Ronnie Abrams, the DOJ said it "respectfully requests that the defendant be ordered to surrender, at a date and time determined by the Court, to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons to commence his term of imprisonment."
On Sunday, the Justice Department denied trying to prevent Archer's testimony before Congress by locking him up, pointing out, in a second letter to the judge, that the process of sending Archer to prison would take "several weeks or months," the New York Post reported.
"Nonetheless, for the avoidance of all doubt, the Government requests that any surrender date, should the Court order one, be scheduled to occur after the defendant's Congressional testimony is completed," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a second letter to Abrams.
In a statement to Politico, Archer's lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, said his client "does not agree" with speculation that the DOJ's letter was meant to prevent his testimony.
"We are aware of speculation that the Department of Justice's weekend request to have Mr. Archer report to prison is an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate him in advance of his meeting with the House Oversight Committee," Schwartz said. "Archer does not agree with that speculation."
During his Monday testimony, Archer was expected to tell members of Congress that he witnessed Hunter Biden calling his father during meetings with foreign business partners on at least two dozen occasions.
Biden has frequently sought to distance himself from his son's profitable foreign business ventures.
"I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period," Biden said in August 2019.