Robert Hur, 51 years old, the special prosecutor in charge of Mr. Biden's mishandling of classified documents, is becoming the center of American politics when he concluded that the President has a poor memory.
Robert Hur was appointed as special prosecutor by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 to handle the case of US President Joe Biden keeping classified documents from his time as vice president in his private home.
Hur is a Republican and served as a federal prosecutor under Donald Trump. In nominating Hur, Mr. Garland expressed "confidence that he will carry out his responsibilities fairly and with integrity."
"I will investigate with a fair and impartial attitude, without letting emotions influence me," Mr. Hur declared at the time.
Robert Hur at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington, DC, USA on May 9, 2019. Photo: AFP
A graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School, Hur, a Korean-American, served as an assistant to former Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. In 2017, Hur was nominated by Trump to serve as a federal prosecutor in Maryland, one of the largest and busiest prosecutorial agencies in the United States. He served in that position from 2018 to 2021. After 2021, he became a partner at the Washington-based law firm Gibson Dunn.
During her time as a federal prosecutor in Maryland, Hur oversaw prosecutions of white supremacists, Covid-19 relief fund scammers, anti-Asian hate crimes and drug cartel leaders.
In March 2021, Hur was appointed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to lead the state’s working group on anti-Asian hate violence. The committee is tasked with meeting with affected groups, analyzing anti-Asian hate crimes, and making recommendations to the government and prosecuting the perpetrators.
Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, two Maryland Democrats, have credited Hur with establishing the Baltimore Task Force on Organized Crime.
Maryland prosecutors also investigated and prosecuted Harold Martin, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency, who was accused of removing a large amount of classified documents and storing them at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Hur was presented with the Attorney General's Award of Excellence for his outstanding performance as a federal prosecutor.
Before taking on the role of federal prosecutor in Maryland, Hur served as a senior assistant to US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from 2017 to 2018. When he learned of Hur's appointment as special counsel, Rosenstein welcomed the decision.
"Rob understands the need to ignore politics and focus on the issues," the former deputy secretary said. "He's not going to be influenced by party."
In a report released on February 8, Hur concluded that Mr. Biden “intentionally” withheld classified documents. But Hur did not recommend prosecuting Mr. Biden, saying that a grand jury would be reluctant to convict the President because it felt he was “an elderly man with a poor memory and good intentions.”
Hur stressed that Mr. Biden's memory is so poor that he cannot remember when he was vice president of the United States and the day his son Beau died of cancer in 2015.
Hur’s comments were immediately seized upon by House Speaker Mike Johnson and many senior Republican leaders to declare that Biden, 81, was unfit for the presidency due to his mental deficiency. Biden is currently the oldest president in US history. If elected president this year, he would continue to lead the US until he is 85.
President Biden was angered by Hur's comments. "My memory is fine. The report even said I don't remember when my son died. How dare he mention that?" he said.
The White House said Hur's criticism was "unfounded and inappropriate". US Vice President Kamala Harris described the report as "clearly politically motivated".
Hong Hanh (According to AFP/USA Today )
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