Hunter Biden, should he take House Republicans up on their invitation to sit for public testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee on March 20, will appear alongside a rogues’ gallery of former business partners and ex-friends — one of whom is in prison and another who’s about to head there — who have refuted his claims that President Biden was never involved in his son’s business affairs. 

Mr. Biden fils was invited on Wednesday to appear before the committee on March 20. Also invited were his former business partners Tony Bobulinski, Devon Archer, and Jason Galanis — two of whom are convicted felons. 

Archer and Galanis, together with other partners, were convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe in South Dakota out of tens of millions of dollars. Galanis has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and is serving his term at a federal prison in Alabama. Archer, whose conviction was thrown out and then reinstated, recently appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. He has yet to report to prison to serve out his one-year sentence, according to the Board of Prisons. 

Mr. Bobulinski worked alongside Mr. Biden and Galanis on a deal with a Communist Chinese Party-linked energy firm, CEFC. He made national headlines in 2020 when he coordinated with the Trump campaign to allege that the now-president was intimately involved with the first son’s business affairs. Mr. Bobulinski was also the recipient of the infamous email message from Galanis that demanded he set aside “ten percent” for “the big guy.”

The chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, tells the Sun that Galanis can be granted a short reprieve from prison should he agree to testify before Congress. House investigators have already ventured to the prison in Alabama to interview him.

The idea of having Mr. Biden appear alongside his detractors would showcase the broken friendships that have dogged the first son as he skirted accountability for his long career of trading on his father’s name to make money. Archer, for instance, was one of Mr. Biden’s closest friends before his legal problems came between them.

Mr. Comer denied that he was inviting the three former business partners to visit as part of a public relations ploy. 

“My goal is that I want to get the truth to the American people,” he tells the Sun. “What we want to do is bring the truth, hold any people accountable for wrongdoing, and pass influence-peddling legislation.”

Archer was one of the first witnesses to affirm Republicans’ assertions that the Bidens had engaged in a business scheme that relied heavily on the perception of selling access to the then-vice president. 

Archer told investigators that Ukrainian energy interests were paying the younger Mr. Biden handsomely because of the value of the Biden “brand.” Archer also disclosed that the future president had spoken to business partners and potential partners of his son on at least 20 occasions but asserted that they were purely casual conversations. 

Galanis — once dubbed “porn’s new king” by Forbes after purchasing the adult film industry’s largest payment processor — was interviewed by impeachment investigators in February. They traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to the prison where he is being held, but the committee has yet to release the details of his interview.

Mr. Bobulinski has been the most outspoken in his assertions that the president was involved in his family’s “scheme.”

During a deposition with the Oversight Committee in February, Mr. Bobulinski said the elder Mr. Biden was, in fact, involved. “I want to be crystal clear: From my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family,” Mr. Bobulinski said. “His family’s foreign influence peddling operation — from China to Ukraine and elsewhere — sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government.”

The Biden camp has come to despise Mr. Bobulinski and characterize him as a pathetic, attention-seeking dissembler. In November, Mr. Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, sent a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice asking it to prosecute Mr. Bobulinski “for the sake of maligning the character and reputation of [Hunter] Biden and his family and to boost his own sense of self-worth.”