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Who is Robert Hur? AG Merrick Garland picks special counsel to probe Biden's handling of classified files

Robert K Hur was nominated by former President Donald Trump to be the next United States Attorney for the District of Maryland

BY DEEPAK KUMAR

PUBLISHED JAN 13, 2023

Robert K Hur will investigate the classified documents discovered in the Penn Biden Center Wilmington home of Joe Biden (Mark Wilson/Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC: Attorney General Merrick Garland picked Robert K Hur, a former federal prosecutor appointed to that position by Donald Trump, as special counsel to investigate the classified documents discovered in the Penn Biden Center and Wilmington home of Joe Biden from when the latter was Barack Obama's VP. There were roughly 10 documents from Biden's vice-presidential office. White House special counsel Richard Sauber earlier explained that the documents were discovered when Biden's personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC.

Garland commented on Hur, saying, "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. Special counsel Richard Sauber said in a statement about Hur's appointment, "We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake," as per Daily Mail. This investigation is a turning point in Joe Biden's presidency as he has stayed away from legal problems as much as he could.

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Sauber previously said, "The discovery of these documents was made by the President's attorneys. The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President's personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives."

Former President Barack Obama (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden shake hands during an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 05, 2022 in Washington, DC. With then-Vice President Joe Biden by his side, Obama signed 'Obamacare' into law on March 23, 2010. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Who is Robert K Hur?

Robert K Hur served as the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland from 2018 to 2021 and previously served as principal associate deputy attorney general. Born to South Korean parents Haesook Hur and Young Hu, Hur received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. Post-graduation, he worked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

United States Attorney Robert Hur speaks at a news conference about the indictment of Kevin Merrill, Jay Ledford, and Cameron Jezierski by a Maryland grand jury at the U.S. Attorney's Office, on September 19, 2018 in Baltimore, MD. Authorities accuse Merrill, Ledford, and Jezierski of defrauding investors of more than $364 million through falsified bank statements and transfers and false sales agreements, according to the indictment. — United States Attorney Robert Hur speaks at a news conference about the indictment of Kevin Merrill, Jay Ledford, and Cameron Jezierski by a Maryland grand jury at the U.S. Attorney's Office, on September 19, 2018 in Baltimore, MD (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

He was nominated by former president Donald Trump to be the next United States Attorney for the District of Maryland on November 1, 2017. Hur was sworn in on April 9, 2018, on February 3, 2021, but announced his resignation, effective February 15. After leaving his US Attorney position in Maryland, Hur became a partner at Gibson Dunn, a national law firm based in Washington, DC.