Trump grants clemency to 2 of Hunter Biden's ex-associates
President Donald Trump has granted clemency to a pair of Hunter Biden's former business partners, both of whom accused former President Joe Biden's son of improperly leveraging his father's political power to broker overseas business relationships.
Last Tuesday, Trump issued a full pardon to Devon Archer, who was sentenced to more than a year in prison for defrauding a Native American tribal entity in 2022.
Later in the week, Trump commuted the 189-month sentence of Jason Galanis for his role in multiple fraudulent schemes.
Archer and Galanis charted a similar path to their presidential pardons: Both men brokered business ties with Hunter Biden, were later found guilty of unrelated fraud schemes, pleaded with the Biden administration for executive clemency, and, when rebuffed, publicly accused Hunter Biden of improperly trading on his family name to secure overseas business deals.
Galanis went a step further than Archer by retaining a high-powered Washington lawyer with close ties to the Trump political machine: Mark Paoletta, whom Trump recently tapped for general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Paoletta did not respond to a request for comment regarding Galanis' commutation.
Last year, Galanis testified before the House Oversight Committee about the Biden family's business arrangements from a jail cell in Alabama. He asserted that Joe Biden was more engaged in Hunter Biden's business dealings than the former president publicly let on, and that "the entire value add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden."
Joe Biden has forcefully denied any wrongdoing and Republicans were unable to find evidence that he used his political perch to support his son's businesses. A House impeachment inquiry concluded last August without any articles of impeachment drawn up.
Matthew Schwartz, an attorney for Archer, told ABC News that "the American jury system is an amazing thing, but as the trial judge held in finding serious questions about Devon Archer's innocence, sometimes juries get it wrong."
Schwartz said that Trump's "pardon corrects a serious injustice, and finally allows an innocent man to be free of the threat of misguided prosecution. Mr. Archer is deeply appreciative of the President."
