Well, this is awkward.
Ex-Hunter Biden business partners Devon Archer and Tony Bobulinski embraced one another at a swanky corporate shindig in Los Angeles Monday — with former first lady Jill Biden just steps away.
The recently pardoned Archer and Bobulinski met on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference, where the latter had been introduced to Joe Biden in 2017 to discuss what became a $7 million energy venture with a Chinese state-linked firm, a House Republican investigation later revealed.
The pair shook hands and Bobulinski wrapped his arm around Archer like a brother as they happily mugged for the camera outside the Bel Air Hotel.
Jill Biden was seated just feet away from the two men who became key Republican impeachment witnesses against her husband, son and brother-in-law.
Corporate titans descended on the annual gathering, sometimes referred to as the “Davos of the West,” to hear a featured address by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the Trump administration’s trade agenda and meet with other finance and business insiders.
The soirée comes a little more than a month after President Trump pardoned Archer for ripping off an American Indian tribe by selling more than $60 million in bogus bonds as an executive at Burnhamm Financial Group.
Hunter Biden was vice chairman of Burnham at the time of the sales — and earned up to $200,000 — but was not charged in 2016 alongside Archer.
“I think he was treated very unfairly,” Trump said while signing Archer’s clemency in the Oval Office in March.
Days later, the president also commuted the sentence of a second Hunter associate, Jason Galanis, for defrauding the same Oglala Sioux entity in South Dakota.
Archer and Bobulinski had bumped into each other for the first time at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where they paused to snap a picture with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Both were key informants for House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry last year into then-President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings and provided significant information incriminating the elder Biden.
Bobulinski also accused former first brother James Biden of lying to Congress last year after he told the House Oversight Committee under oath that Bobulinski and Joe Biden never met to talk about a business deal with CEFC China Energy shortly after Biden left the vice presidency.
Hunter Biden contradicted his uncle in his own testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
“We were in the lobby bar with Mr. Bobulinski having coffee,” the troubled first son testified in February 2024. “My uncle and myself. … My dad went and shook hands with Tony.”
“They talked about — I believe at that time, I don’t know whether it was Tony’s father was suffering from cancer, and his sister was suffering from cancer, and he invited him to the speech at the Milken Conference,” Hunter went on.
He added: “I think my uncle was also staying at that hotel. And so yeah. I know that, if you go further, it says — but I think that the reality is that he didn’t.”
James Biden told impeachment investigators that he and Hunter had greeted Bobulinski at the Beverly Hills Hotel six years ago but claimed, “My brother never came out and had any discussions. May have came out to say hi. That’s all.”
Asked directly whether he recalled attending any business meeting with Bobulinski at the California junket, James added: “Absolutely not.”
In October 2020, Bobulinski roiled the presidential race by coming forward with text messages and emails laying out the purported influence-peddling racket run by the Bidens — with investments into CEFC for infrastructure, real estate, and technology, purportedly as part of China’s “Belt and Road” foreign influence initiative.
“I have heard Joe Biden say he has never discussed his dealings with Hunter. That is false,” he told reporters at a press conference in Nashville, Tenn., just 12 days before voters headed for the polls.
“I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden,” he said.
The future impeachment witness then disclosed a smoking-gun email sent a little more than a week after the Milken Conference that laid bare a plan for the Democratic candidate to receive a 10% stake of the CEFC venture.
A May 13, 2017, email noted that the share would be “held by H for the big guy?”
Hunter Biden later testified — following several confessions by former close associates — that the “big guy” moniker was made in reference to his father but denied that the ex-vice president was ever on the take.
Joe Biden pardoned his son of federal gun charges and $1.4 million in tax evasion before he left office — and shielded him from future prosecution for any other offenses between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.
The then-first son said he wasn’t aware of the email but had he seen it he would have “shut it down,” calling it a “pie in the sky idea” floated by then-associate James Gilliar.
Bobulinki had lobbied hard for Archer’s pardon after the two forged a friendship in the wake of the Biden impeachment inquiry, with Bobulinski accompanying Trump to one of the presidential debates in 2020, and both campaigning for the 45th president in Pennsylvania during the 2024 race.
