Balanced and precise, Hur takes on the fight because of the special counsel’s report on Biden
Former special counsel Robert K. Hur, denounced by Democrats for his unsparing description of President Biden’s memory loss, had one of his own during testimony Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
Representative James R. Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, made a passing reference to Dana A. Remus, a Democratic lawyer who had served as White House counsel under Mr. Biden from January 2021 to July 2022.
Mr. Hur raised an eyebrow and corrected him: No, he said, she held that post under President Obama.
The misstep was an isolated moment in an otherwise poised and precise performance by Mr. Hur, 51, who was testifying about his report on the investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents. Mr. Hur, a Trump-era Justice Department official known among former colleagues for keeping a cool head in high-stress, high-stakes situations, sparked a furor after describing the president as a “well-intentioned, older man with a bad memory’. .”
Before his work as special counsel, Mr. Hur, a graduate of Stanford Law School and a clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was best known for his 11-month stint as the top assistant to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in 2017 and 2018. It was a time of extraordinary turmoil, as Mr. Rosenstein oversaw the installation of a special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to investigate President Donald J. Trump’s dealings with Russia. Both men lived under the constant threat of being fired by Mr. Trump, who viewed the appointment as a personal betrayal.
Mr. Hur, who resigned this week as special counsel, did little to calm critics in his appearance before lawmakers. But he stood his ground against Democrats, who saw his report as a partisan hit, and Republicans, who criticized him for refusing to indict Mr. Biden despite some evidence that the president had deliberately withheld classified material.
He defended himself in the unhurried, forceful cadence of a veteran prosecutor addressing a skeptical jury, claiming he had provided a subjective analysis — one that is disputed — of Mr. Biden’s mental acuity, not out of malice, but because of his decision to justify. cost. His tone, flat and matter-of-fact, did not change as he dismissed Republican efforts to increase criticism of Mr. Biden in the report.
A frustrated conservative on the committee went so far as to describe Mr. Hur, a registered Republican, as a member of the “Praetorian Guard” protecting Washington elites, including Mr. Biden.
The hearing room was packed for Mr. Hur’s testimony as reporters negotiated for seats and a long line formed outside for those who showed up late.
What increases the tension at the beginning: a loud protest in the interrogation room by demonstrators calling on Israel to end the war in Gaza. They were quickly removed by police before the sanctioned shouting, of which there would be plenty, began.
When Mr. Hur arrived, he sat alone in the center of the long witness table. He wore a blue suit with a lavender tie. From the front, looking toward a bank of cameras, he projected an air of imperturbability as Democratic and Republican lawmakers began widely denouncing his work and each other.
But from the side it was a different story. Mr. Hur sat tensely on the edge of his upholstered chair, bracing himself for the confrontation.
He began his opening statement, like many who faced a hostile reckoning in a Capitol Hill committee room, by recognizing his family’s sacrifice and courage.
Mr. Hur told the story of his parents’ escape, as young children, from the Korean War – the American soldiers who offered food to his starving father, his mother’s escape from the war-torn north, the long and anxious journey to the United States. States.
“Their lives, and mine, would have been very different had it not been for this country,” Mr. Hur said, with a barely perceptible tremor in his speech.
That was as emotional as he had been all day.