President Trump has issued a pardon for a former business associate and close friend of Hunter Biden who told the House impeachment inquiry that the first son was selling the family “brand” to make millions from domestic and overseas clients. Mr. Trump said Tuesday that the whole prosecution was a “crime.”

Devon Archer was first indicted in 2016 for his role in defrauding a Native American tribe out of tens of millions of dollars alongside several other defendants. He was originally convicted in 2018 before a district court judge overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. An appellate court then ruled that Mr. Archer must be sentenced for his 2018 conviction. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal in January 2024. 

According to the Bureau of Prisons, Mr. Archer had not yet reported to prison for his one-year sentence at the time Mr. Trump issued the pardon on Tuesday. 

“Devon Archer was a former business partner of the Biden family. He was prosecuted related to a fraud investigation, but notably, the tone and tenor of that prosecution changed dramatically after he began to cooperate with congressional investigators and serve as a witness against Hunter Biden and the Biden family. We believe that was an injustice,” the White House staff secretary, Will Scharf, explained as he handed the pardon to Mr. Trump at the White House on Tuesday for his signature. 

“Many people have asked me to do this. I think he was treated very unfairly, and I looked at the record, studied the records, and he was. He was the victim of a crime as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Trump declared before signing the pardon. 

“Congratulations, Devon,” the president said as he held up the signed document. 

Mr. Archer burst into the spotlight in 2023 after he testified before the ill-fated House impeachment inquiry into President Biden, as lawmakers were trying to prove the existence of an “influence-peddling scheme” orchestrated by members of the Biden family — namely the first son himself. Mr. Archer claimed that the younger Mr. Biden was selling the family “brand” and the appearance of access to the elder Mr. Biden, who was then serving as vice president, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars. 

In a later interview with Tucker Carlson, Mr. Archer said that the the elder Mr. Biden’s claims that he “knew nothing” about his son’s business dealings were “categorically false.” He said he witnessed the younger Mr. Biden either call his father or take calls from his father several times at business dinners to impress investors, which Mr. Archer described as a “party trick.”

Mr. Archer regretted that he ever entered into a friendship and business partnership with the Biden family, given the legal troubles that followed. “The trajectory of my life would’ve been far different, and arguably far better, if I never met” Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer told Mr. Carlson. 

The Chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP who also serves as Mr. Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, tells The New York Sun that his client is “appreciative” of the president’s pardon. 

“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,” Mr. Schwartz tells the Sun. “Today’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.”