A close friend and ex-business associate of the president’s troubled son, Hunter Biden, is now cooperating with congressional investigators probing allegations that President Biden took a $5 million bribe from a foreign national during his time as vice president.

The associate, Devon Archer, has agreed to meet with congressional investigators as part of their investigation into allegations that Mr. Biden received a $5 million bribe from a foreign national during his time as vice president, according to a congressional source who spoke with the Sun. 

Archer was originally subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday and had been called on to appear for a deposition on Friday. Archer is now in talks with the committee staff to schedule a different date for his deposition. 

The source, who works on the Oversight Committee, said Archer has shown a “willingness” to come forward and is “in compliance with the subpoena” as of now. “The committee is in communication with Devon Archer’s attorneys about appearing on another day,” the source said. 

Members of the committee asked that Archer sit for a deposition because they see him “as possessing information relevant to its investigation” into claims that Mr. Biden received a substantial bribe from a Ukrainian business magnate around 2014. 

The Oversight Committee is turning to Archer for information related to the alleged payment of the $5 million bribe, as Republicans say they are being stonewalled by the FBI. While the agency says it has complied with all lawful subpoena requirements, it says it cannot turn over the classified whistleblower form for fear of damaging its human source network. 

Despite their close ties, Archer and Mr. Biden had a difficult conversation following Archer’s conviction. According to Miranda Devine’s book, “Laptop from Hell,” Archer texted Mr. Biden in March 2019 to vent his frustrations about the prosecution. 

“Why did your dad’s administration appointees arrest me and try and put me in jail?” Archer asked. “Why would they try and ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family’s side step in and at least try to help me?”  

Hunter Biden then assured him that he was a part of the family. “Every big family is persecuted. … You are part of a great family — not a sideshow, not abandoned by them even in their worst moments. That’s the way Bidens are different, and you are a Biden,” the future first son responded. 

Archer’s work alongside Hunter Biden could give him special insight into the bribery allegation. The younger Mr. Biden, like his father, was also allegedly paid $5 million as part of a lobbying effort by the Ukrainian energy magnate, Mykola Zlochevsky. 

Archer and his friend from Yale, Chris Heinz, the ketchup heir whose stepfather is Secretary Kerry, together with Hunter Biden formed the Rosemont Seneca investment firm and proceeded to pursue business deals, drawing on Mr. Biden’s and Mr. Heinz’s family connections. Archer and Mr. Biden would go on to join the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma despite having no experience in the oil and gas sector.

According to emails recently reviewed by the New York Post, Archer and Mr. Biden meticulously researched and planned their foray into the Eastern European energy market, with the aim of helping Burisma executives make connections in America. 

In April 2014, Mr. Biden sent one email to Archer that included a 22-point memo that analyzed the energy market and the political upheaval gripping the country at the time, among other things. Mr. Biden referred to the memo as “thoughts after doing some research.” 

In another email to Archer — sent just one day after his Ukraine memo — Mr. Biden refers to “my guys [sic] upcoming travels.” One week later, the vice president traveled to Ukraine as the head of an American delegation. 

That same month, Mr. Biden and Archer joined Burisma’s board of directors despite having no professional experience in the industry. Burisma would go on to pay Mr. Biden more than $80,000 a month until his father left the White House in 2017. 

Archer’s cooperation with the Oversight Committee comes as he faces serious legal peril. On June 7, Archer lost an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where he had hoped to strike down a one-year prison sentence he was ordered to complete after being convicted of stealing $60 million in bonds from a Native American tribe. 

Archer and other business partners — which did not include the younger Mr. Biden — were convicted by a jury in 2018 on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said Archer and his co-defendants engaged in “a fraudulent scheme” wherein they did not pay annuity on the bonds they had acquired from the tribe and instead used the proceeds “to support the defendants’ business and personal interests.”

Archer is not the only person who could have valuable information about the alleged payment of a bribe. The Senate’s longest-serving member, Senator Grassley, has recently claimed the foreign national who allegedly paid the bribe — reportedly Mr. Zlochevsky — has in his possession more than a dozen recordings of phone calls in which he discusses the alleged bribe with the first son. He also allegedly has two recordings of him speaking with the president while he was serving under President Obama. 

“According to the [whistleblower form], the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden” and “two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot,” Mr. Grassley said in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday.