Robert Hur, Special Counsel in Biden Document Probe, was DOJ Point Person in Russia Investigation

Robert Hur, the lawyer appointed to oversee the probe into the mishandling of classified documents found in President Joe Biden’s former private office and in his garage, is a former senior leader in the Department of Justice under former president Donald Trump and was the department’s point person for overseeing the investigation into Russian election interference.

“He has a great record. He is a superb lawyer,” Rod Rosenstein, a former deputy attorney general under Trump, told National Review. Rosenstein recruited Hur to the Justice Department after previously hiring him and then supervising him as assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland.

Hur is “extraordinarily hard working and effective,” Rosenstein said.

“Rob understands what he’s getting into,” Rosenstein said of the Biden documents probe. “He saw what [Russia special investigator] Bob Mueller’s experience was. He was our point person in managing the special counsel investigation, so he worked very closely with the Mueller team and understands what they faced.”

In announcing Hur’s appointment, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Hur has a “long and distinguished career as a prosecutor” and has “supervised some of the department’s more important national security, public corruption, and other high-profile matters.”

Hur attended Harvard, received his law degree from Stanford Law School, and was a law clerk for William Rehnquist, the former chief justice of Supreme Court, according to his biography on the website of his current law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Hur was a top aide to now-FBI Director Christopher Wray when Wray was in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division. In 2007, Rosenstein recruited Hur to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland, where he served for seven years.

When Rosenstein was named deputy attorney general in 2017, he recruited Hur to join him as his top counselor, where he assisted in overseeing the department’s national security, civil, criminal, and antitrust divisions. “He was responsible for managing all facets of the department’s operations,” Rosenstein said.

In 2018, Trump appointed Hur to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He was Maryland’s top law enforcement officer and “handled numerous high-profile matters including those involving national security, cybercrime, public corruption, and financial fraud,” according to his lawfirm bio. According to CNN, Hur played a key role in a children’s-book scandal involving then-Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh that resulted in Pugh being sentenced to three years in prison.

Hur resigned from the job in 2021 at the end of Trump’s presidency.

In a statement on Thursday, Hur vowed to “conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgement. 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.”

Rosenstein said he trusts Hur. “It’s fortunate that somebody of Rob’s skill and integrity is willing to take the job,” he said.

“Every special counsel starts with a superb reputation. Nobody finishes that way,” Rosenstein said. “It’s just the nature of the job, and I think Rob understands that, that no matter what you do you’re going to get criticized. So, keep your head down and do what you believe to be the right thing.”

Earlier this week, CBS News reported that in early November, Biden’s attorneys discovered about ten classified documents from his tenure as vice president in Biden’s private office at his think tank. Biden said he had no knowledge of them being there, and turned them over to the National Archives. “People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously,” Biden said, according to the Associated Press.

This week, lawyers searching Biden’s Delaware homes in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington found additional classified documents in a storage space in Biden’s Wilmington garage.

Asked about the discovery of documents in his garage on Thursday, Biden sought to downplay the development, stressing that the garage was locked.

“Classified material next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?” Peter Doocy of Fox News asked Biden Thursday during a press briefing.

“By the way, my Corvette’s in a locked garage,” Biden joked before adding, “People know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.”