US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on January 12 that he had appointed Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Hur, 50, is taking over the probe from Chicago’s top federal prosecutor John Lausch. Lausch had spearheaded a review of the sensitive materials found at the president’s former office at a Washington think tank and private Wilmington, Delaware residence, since November.
“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment. 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,” Robert Hur said in a statement released by the Department of Justice.
As the Biden classified memos saga unfolds, let's take a closer look at the man behind the newly-launched special counsel probe.
Where & When Was Robert Hur Born?
Robert Kyoung Hur was born in 1973 in New York City to South Korean parents, Haesook Hur, an office manager, and Dr. Young Hur, an anesthesiologist, from Monroe Township, New Jersey.
What Education Did Special Counsel Robert Hur Have?
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1995, he then rounded off his education at Stanford Law School, where he was executive editor of the Stanford Law Review. He graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 2001. Hur also studied philosophy at King’s College, University of Cambridge from 1995 to 1996.
Where Did Robert Hur Work?
Robert Hur was employed for some time as a clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the US Supreme Court and Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Hur's resume includes a stint as special assistant and counsel to Christopher A. Wray, then-assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice Department's Criminal Division, and now the director of the FBI. At the time, the seasoned lawyer handled counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate issues.
As part of his law enforcement career, Hur was an assistant United States attorney in the District of Maryland from 2007 until 2014. Gang violence, drug trafficking, firearm offenses, and white-collar crimes all fell under his jurisdiction at the time.
Hur served as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC from 2017 to 2018.
After 45th US President Donald Trump nominated Robert Hur to be US attorney for Maryland in 2017, he received unanimous Senate confirmation and was sworn in in 2018. Hur served in this position from April 2018 until February 2021. While occupying the post, Hur found himself engaged in "numerous high-profile matters including those involving national security, cybercrime, public corruption, and financial fraud," his biography states.
Hur resigned from the post of US Attorney for the District of Maryland i in February 2021, at the start of Democratic POTUS Joe Biden’s term.
US Attorney for Maryland Robert Hur (C) outside the US Court House in Greenbelt, Maryland, on February 21, 2019.
© AFP 2023 / JIM WATSON
Robert Hur, a "seasoned trial lawyer... with decades of experience in government and in private practice,” according to his LinkedIn profile, has 14 cases as a federal prosecutor and in private practice under his belt. Hur worked in private practice at the law firm King & Spalding in Washington, DC, with focus on government investigations and complex litigation.
After leaving the Justice Department, in April 2021 Robert Hur became a partner in the Washington, DC office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is also co-chair of the law company’s Crisis Management Practice Group, and a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and the National Security Practice Group.
Who is Robert Hur's Wife?
Robert Kyoung Hur met his wife, Cara Elizabeth Brewer, on a subway train, according to media reports. When he discovered that she was a law student, he reportedly offered her a ticket to watch a Supreme Court oral argument.
“I was pretty impressed with her looks. But I wasn’t going to be the freak who hits on a woman in a subway station,” Hur was cited as saying in a US media interview.
The two married in Glen Mar United Methodist Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, according to their 2004 wedding announcement. Cara Hur, 49, graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park and received her law degree from George Washington University. She worked as an associate in the McLean, Va office of San Francisco law firm Pillsbury Winthrop.
Cara and Robert Hur have three children together.