NEW YORK CITY - U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who sentenced Hunter Biden’s former partner Devon Archer to a year in prison when guidelines ranged from 81 to 135 months, plans to further soften his punishment.
Abrams vacated Archer's sentence on May 15, after his counsel Matthew Schwartz and Craig Wenner admitted they provided ineffective assistance at sentencing in 2022.
She directed Schwartz, Wenner, and U.S. prosecutor Samuel Rothschild to arrange a date for a hearing and adopt a schedule for briefs.
Grand jurors indicted Archer and six others on fraud and conspiracy charges in 2016.
Indictments alleged that they issued $43 million in bonds for a tribal business and spent much of the proceeds on themselves.
The events occurred while Archer and Biden managed Rosemont Seneca investment firm, but grand jurors did not include Biden in the conspiracy.
At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Archer for recovery, but the civil suit couldn’t proceed until the criminal case closed.
In 2017, Archer began working with Jeffrey Cooper of Edwardsville.
However, Cooper previously clarified in a statement to the Record that he has not worked with Archer in years. He added that he does not know where Archer is currently working.
Three criminal defendants pleaded guilty and four stood trial, Archer among them.
Jurors convicted all four in 2018 and each of them moved for a second trial.
Abrams granted a new trial for Archer and denied it to the others.
Prosecutors appealed and while Archer awaited a decision, Abrams frequently granted him permission to fly around the world on business and for pleasure.
Seventh Circuit appellate judges reversed Abrams in 2020 and directed her to sentence him.
Archer petitioned the Supreme Court for review, and the Justices denied it in 2021.
They sent the case back to Abrams who set a sentencing hearing in February 2022.
Four of Cooper’s employees and his son submitted letters for leniency.
Schwartz and Wenner painted a heroic portrait of Archer in a sentencing brief that proposed punishment without custody.
They began, “Devon Archer is a good and trustworthy man. He is a loving husband and devoted father of three.”
They quoted leniency letters calling him warm, generous, kind, fair, ethical, honest, loyal, thoughtful, amazing, outstanding, terrific and thoughtful.
They claimed he saw the good in people almost to a fault.
They added that he thought he was building a business, not helping to further a criminal scheme.
They claimed he didn’t profit from the scheme and he lost about $800,000 of his own money.
“Mr. Archer has already suffered a great deal,” they wrote.
They claimed he lived with a crushing burden that his unknowing involvement in the fraud caused harm to many people.
They also claimed his children were traumatized by their father’s prosecution and conviction, which became matters of national headlines and presidential politics.
“Mr. Archer has watched the reputation and career he built over decades fall apart around him as he has faced a near constant onslaught of vitriolic media attention,” they wrote.
They claimed he developed a business relationship notwithstanding the enormous negative media attention.
They added that Archer worked full time for a company in Illinois, where he was responsible for international development.
“As the court is aware, many of Mr. Archer’s international travel requests during this case have been to create and expand opportunities for this company,” they wrote.
Prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein proposed 30 months, claiming Archer deserved the same sentence as defendant Bevan Cooney because they played similar roles.
She wrote that permitting Archer to avoid incarceration in order to meet the needs of his children would create gross disparities with defendants who are afforded no such benefit.
Mermelstein claimed it would send a message that children of privileged defendants are more important than children of other defendants.
She stated the sentencing guideline ranged from 108 to 135 months.
Abrams sentenced Archer for a year and a day, the shortest sentence that could allow time off for good behavior.
Archer appealed, Seventh Circuit judges affirmed the sentence last year, and Archer petitioned the Supreme Court for review.
Schwartz and Wenner also moved for a writ of habeas corpus from Abrams, claiming the guideline should have ranged from 87 to 135 months and they failed to catch the error.
Abrams ruled that she’d consider the claim after the Supreme Court acted.
The Justices denied review in January, and Abrams asked prosecutors for a response to the habeas corpus motion.
Prosecutor Samuel Rothschild claimed the sentence was less than a tenth of the middle of the guidelines range.
He claimed there was no reasonable probability that if Abrams calculated the range as 87 to 108 months, she would have sentenced Archer to something less than a year and a day.
In her May 15 order, Abrams declared she would have done exactly that.
She found the erroneous range formed the starting point in Archer’s sentencing.
“Although the court found the guidelines range to be too high, the guidelines were ultimately the framework for sentencing and thus anchored the court’s discretion,” she wrote.
She found any increase in jail time significant under the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Meanwhile the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil suit, which would involve broader discovery of Archer’s conduct than the criminal case, hasn’t advanced an inch in eight years.