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| Special Counsel Robert Kyoung Hur |
Robert Kyoung Hur, was named by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to look into the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“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,” Hur said in a statement,
His parents are Haesook Hur and Dr. Young Hur of Monroe Township New Jersey, The New York Times reported. Her father is an anesthesiologist, according to a NYTimes article.
According to the biography, Hur, 50, was born in New York and “received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review. He is also a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of D.C.
At the Justice Department, Hur worked with former Trump deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the former deputy attorney general told CNN.
“Rob has been around long enough – he knows what he is getting into,” said Rosenstein.
Appointed by Donald Trump and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate, he served from 2018 to 2021 as US Attorney in Maryland, setting strategic priorities for and supervising one of the largest and busiest US Attorney’s Offices in the nation, according to his bio.
As a US Attorney, one of the high-profile cases he “led criminal cases against former Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, and two state delegates,” reported The Baltimore Sun. Pugh was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion, according to a press release from the DOJ.
Hur was also appointed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to chair a the Asian American Hate Crime Workgroup in 202, according to CBS News, which added that the group was also charged with addressing “the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and violence.
Shortly after Biden was sworn into office as President, Hur, described as a "conservative" Republican, resigned from the Department of Justice and went into private practice with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Co-Chair of the Firm’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.”
The White House confirmed that “a small number” of materials with “classified markings” were found and turned over to the federal government, NPR reported.
The DOJ order made public on Thursday lays out the task ahead of Hur.
“The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in this matter,” Garland said during his brief press conference, in which he touted Hur’s “long and distinguished” record as a prosecutor.
Biden's attorneys reportedly found the Obama-Biden administration records during a search completed Wednesday night of Biden’s residences in both Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Del. All but one of the classified documents were found in a storage space in Biden’s Wilmington garage, with one other record found in an adjacent room, read a statement from Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber.
Republicans were quick to to compare Biden's case with the way Trump hoarded nearly 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for more than a year—even when the National Archives notified his office that the records were wrongly stored there illegally. It wasn’t until FBI agents raided the mansion in August 2022 that the Trump-held documents were recovered.
“People know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously," said Biden. "I also said we’re cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.”
Appointed by Donald Trump and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate, he served from 2018 to 2021 as US Attorney in Maryland, setting strategic priorities for and supervising one of the largest and busiest US Attorney’s Offices in the nation, according to his bio.
As a US Attorney, one of the high-profile cases he “led criminal cases against former Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, and two state delegates,” reported The Baltimore Sun. Pugh was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion, according to a press release from the DOJ.
Hur was also appointed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to chair a the Asian American Hate Crime Workgroup in 202, according to CBS News, which added that the group was also charged with addressing “the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and violence.
Shortly after Biden was sworn into office as President, Hur, described as a "conservative" Republican, resigned from the Department of Justice and went into private practice with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Co-Chair of the Firm’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.”
The White House confirmed that “a small number” of materials with “classified markings” were found and turned over to the federal government, NPR reported.
The DOJ order made public on Thursday lays out the task ahead of Hur.
“The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in this matter,” Garland said during his brief press conference, in which he touted Hur’s “long and distinguished” record as a prosecutor.
Biden's attorneys reportedly found the Obama-Biden administration records during a search completed Wednesday night of Biden’s residences in both Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Del. All but one of the classified documents were found in a storage space in Biden’s Wilmington garage, with one other record found in an adjacent room, read a statement from Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber.
Republicans were quick to to compare Biden's case with the way Trump hoarded nearly 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for more than a year—even when the National Archives notified his office that the records were wrongly stored there illegally. It wasn’t until FBI agents raided the mansion in August 2022 that the Trump-held documents were recovered.
“People know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously," said Biden. "I also said we’re cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.”
In contrast to Trump's attempts to stop the probe of his documents, Biden’s personal lawyers say they “immediately” notified the federal government about their discoveries at both the think tank and Biden’s home garage.
“As we stated previously, we are fully cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in possession of the Archives,” Sauber said in the statement.
“As we stated previously, we are fully cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in possession of the Archives,” Sauber said in the statement.
Correction: Jan. 13, 10:30 a.m. to correct age of Robert Hur.
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