Who is Robert Hur? What to know as he testifies in front of House Judiciary Committee
Special Counsel Robert Hur is testifying Tuesday in front of the House Judiciary Committee about his report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.
Hur's report concluded that Biden will not face criminal charges, but it painted Biden as an elderly man with "diminished capacities" such as memory loss.
The report drew outrage from Biden and criticism from Democrats and some Republicans alike, leaving many to wonder if the report when too far.
The hearing kicked off around 10 a.m., and Hur said in prepared remarks that he had to show his work for his conclusion.
"What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe," Hur said. "I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly."
Follow along live: Hur to defend characterization of Biden's memory in testimony to Congress
AG Garland confident in Hur's appointment
Formerly Maryland’s top prosecutor, Robert Kyoung Hur has led the probe since early last year when Attorney General Merrick Garland called him out of retirement to appoint him as special counsel.
While announcing the appointment, Garland expressed confidence in Hur's ability to lead the investigation in an "even-handed and urgent manner."
"This appointment underscores for the public the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law," Garland said last January.
After his appointment, Hur said in a statement that he would "conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment," according to The Associated Press. "I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service.”
Hur interviewed President Biden in October
As part of the inquiry, Hur met with the president in a two-day voluntary interview at the White House in October.
"As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation," White House spokesperson Iam Sams said in a statement at the time. "As it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation."
Hur's investigation has run parallel to special counsel Jack Smith's inquiry into former President Donald Trump, his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election and the transfer of highly classified government documents to his Florida estate at the end of his term.
A key contrast between the two inquiries is that Biden alerted authorities about the classified records, while the majority of Trump’s were seized under subpoena and during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Hur concluded that Biden would appear as 'elderly man with a poor memory' to jury
Biden’s age was already a concern for many looking towards the 2024 election, and the report raised several allegations of memory failure, including:
He couldn't remember "even within several years" when his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer
He said he "had a real difference" of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when Hur said Biden had named Eikenberry as an ally in a memo to then-President Obama
Biden didn't remember when he was vice president
"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," Hur's report says.
What is Robert Hur's experience?
Before his short-lived retirement, Hur headed the District of Maryland, one of the largest and busiest U.S. Attorney’s offices, from 2018 to 2021.
In that role he oversaw the successful prosecutions of white supremacists, COVID-19 fund fraudsters, Asian hate crime perpetrators and drug cartel kingpins. His office also worked on the long-running investigation and prosecution of former National Security Agency contractor Harold Martin, who was accused of taking a “breathtaking” amount of classified material and storing it in his Glen Burnie, Maryland, home.
For his work as a U.S. Attorney, Hur received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for superior performance and excellence as a lawyer.
Before he became Maryland's top prosecutor, Hur was the principal associate deputy attorney general at the U.S Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. from 2017 to 2018. In the position, Hur was a member of the department's senior leadership team and the principal counselor to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, assisting him with oversight of all components of the department, according to the department.
Hur earned his law degree from Stanford University, where he was executive editor of the Stanford Law Review. He then worked as a law clerk for then-Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist after graduating.
In March 2021, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan tapped Hur – who is Asian American – to lead a state work group on anti-Asian American violence. The panel was tasked with meeting with affected groups, analyzing crimes against Asian Americans and making recommendations to improve policing efforts and the prosecution of related hate crimes.
Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Maryland Democrats, praised Hur’s work to establish the Baltimore Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which created a permanent federal, state and local law enforcement partnership to combat violent crime in Baltimore.
Biden, Dems and some Republicans criticize Hur's report
While many Republicans jumped on the opportunity for critique immediately, others thought the report may have gone too far.
“A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a joint statement with other House Republican leaders.
“I’m no fan of President Biden, but he's not charged with a crime and now he's out there having to defend himself. And how can he defend himself when there’s no jury or judge to decide whether those allegations are true?” Mark Lytle, a Justice Department prosecutor who describes himself as a Republican, told USA TODAY previously.
Others defended Hur's decision to justify his decision in a high-profile case.
The report prompted an unannounced primetime address, where Biden appeared visibly angry and rejected any concerns about his memory.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, Francesca Chambers, Joey Garrison, Josh Meyer, Riley Beggin; USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Robert Hur? What to know about special counsel amid hearing
