Prosecutors at Manhattan are defending themselves against accusations that they were attempting to interfere with the forthcoming congressional testimony of a former Biden family associate, Devon Archer, who is expected to detail Hunter Biden’s business dealings behind closed doors on Monday. 

On Saturday, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, sent a letter to a federal judge through an intermediary that asked to begin the process of setting a date for Archer to report to prison. In 2018, Archer was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and he lost his appeal to overturn the conviction earlier this year. 

The letter set off a firestorm in conservative circles, with some Republicans accusing the DOJ of improperly interfering with the congressional investigation into the younger Mr. Biden. Archer will sit before the House Oversight Committee on Monday to detail his time working with Mr. Biden on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, as well as other ventures the two men worked on together. 

The chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, told Fox News on Sunday that the prosecutors are trying to have the presiding jurist, Judge Ronnie Abrams, send Archer to prison as soon as possible “for something unrelated than what we’re going to be talking to him about tomorrow.” Mr. Comer said that this could be “another example of the weaponization of the Department of Justice.”

One member of the Oversight Committee, Congressman Matt Gaetz, said the DOJ was attempting to obstruct the legislators’ investigation. “The DOJ is now actively committing the crime of obstructing a congressional investigation,” Mr. Gaetz said on Twitter. A senior member of the House Judiciary Committee who is close with House Republican leadership, Congressman Mike Johnson, called the letter “almost unbelievable.”

Prosecutors at Manhattan quickly pushed back on such accusations after the furor, writing to Judge Abrams on Sunday that they simply wish to begin the process of setting a date for Archer to report to prison, which would not actually happen for “several weeks or months.”

“The Government understands that the defendant is scheduled to provide testimony to Congress” on Monday, the letter stated. “To be clear, the Government does not request (and has never requested) that the defendant surrender before his Congressional testimony.”

A source close to Archer says they “expect” today’s testimony “to be the one and only time Mr. Archer appears before the House.” The source added that Archer “will talk to them for no more than 4 hours total.”

When asked by the Sun if Archer would sit for another round of testimony — either publicly or privately — a source on the Oversight Committee declined to answer. 

Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, said his client does not agree with the accusation that the DOJ wants to silence him before 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 today,” Mr. Schwartz said in a message to the Sun. 

“To be clear, Mr. Archer does not agree with that speculation. In any case, Mr. Archer will do what he has planned to do all along, which is to show up this morning and to honestly answer the questions that are put to him by the Congressional investigators,” he continued.