WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The special counsel who impugned the president’s age and competence in his report on how Joe Biden handled classified documents will himself be up for questioning this week.
Robert Hur is scheduled to testify before a congressional committee on Tuesday as House Republicans try to keep the spotlight on unflattering assessments of Biden.
Some Biden aides and allies have suggested that Hur, a Republican appointed to his role as U.S. attorney by Donald Trump, is a political partisan. Hur’s defenders say he has shown throughout his career that his work is guided by only facts and the law — not politics.
A review of Hur’s professional life shows he’s no stranger to politically charged investigations. He prosecuted former elected officials as Maryland’s chief federal law enforcement officer. And as a Justice Department official, he helped monitor special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A look at Hur’s career and why he’s in the spotlight now:
Hur determined in a report made public last month that no criminal charges were warranted in the president’s handling of classified documents after he left the vice presidency.
But in explaining how he had arrived at his decision, Hur wrote that Biden would likely present himself to a jury “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” He suggested Biden could not even remember during questioning when his adult son Beau had died.
Democrats have lashed out at Hur over the remarks about Biden’s age and mental acuity. They argue the digs were unnecessary and could help Republicans trying to unseat Biden in 2024.
Some also suggested Hur was quick to accept the invitation to speak before the House Judiciary Committee. The panel, led by Trump loyalist Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, has spearheaded many of the congressional investigations into the president, including the floundering effort to impeach him.
But Hur’s report also carefully explained how the criminal case accusing Trump of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort presents far more serious allegations. Hur noted that Biden cooperated with investigators and agreed to searches of his homes. Trump, on the other hand, is accused of not only holding onto sensitive documents, but obstructing justice “by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it,” Hur wrote.
Hur was handpicked to lead the Biden investigation by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was aware of both Hur’s career history and his political affiliations. Garland has been determined to preside over an apolitical Justice Department as the agency probes not just Biden and Trump, but also Biden’s son Hunter.
“I think Merrick Garland probably recognized that Rob was someone who was a Republican but had a track record of making nonpartisan law enforcement decisions and was respected by people on both sides of the aisle,” said former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was once Hur’s boss.
Hur held one of the most powerful jobs in the Justice Department during a tumultuous time in the Trump administration, serving as the top aide to Rosenstein, the department’s second-in-command.
As the principal associate deputy attorney general, Hur helped run day-to-day operations of the department in 2017 and early 2018. He also helped Rosenstein stay on top of Mueller’s progress in the Russia investigation. Hur held bi-weekly meetings with the special counsel’s team and reported back to Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general said in an interview.
Rosenstein said he hired Hur because he knew he would maintain a calm and steady demeanor and “approach cases in a nonpartisan way.”
In 2017, Hur joined then-Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan at a White House press conference about the violent MS-13 street gang, an appearance that some criticized as violating ethics norms.
Some former Justice Department officials at the time said it was unwise for Hur to discuss law enforcement matters from the briefing room in the White House, saying it could call into question the independence of the department.
Trump nominated Hur in 2017 to take Rosenstein’s old job as Maryland’s U.S. attorney, and Hur was unanimously approved by the Senate the next year.
Hur’s office prosecuted a number of political figures during his tenure, including former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges for selling a self-published children’s books to nonprofit organizations to promote her political career.
In another case, Hur’s office prosecuted a Coast Guard lieutenant who was accused of stockpiling weapons and plotting politically motivated killings inspired by a far-right mass murderer. Christopher Hasson was accused of having what appeared to be a hit list naming Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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