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CNN —
The Justice Department’s probe into classified documents recovered astatine President Joe Biden’s location and erstwhile backstage bureau volition beryllium overseen by Robert Hur, a erstwhile US lawyer successful Maryland who has a “long and distinguished vocation arsenic a prosecutor,” Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday.
Hur was nominated to beryllium US lawyer successful Maryland by then-President Donald Trump successful 2017 and helium served successful the relation until his resignation successful 2021. In the job, Hur played a cardinal relation successful a fig of high-profile cases, including a children’s publication ungraded involving then-Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh that resulted successful Pugh being sentenced to 3 years successful prison.
He has astir precocious been moving successful backstage signifier successful Washington, DC.
“Rob has been astir agelong capable – helium knows what helium is getting into,” erstwhile Trump lawman Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, for whom Hur served for a clip arsenic a elder adviser, told CNN connected Thursday.
“I deliberation helium understands the needs to disregard authorities and absorption connected what matters,” Rosenstein added.
In announcing the appointment, Garland noted that Hur “supervised immoderate of the department’s much important nationalist security, nationalist corruption and different high-profile matters.”
“I volition guarantee that Mr. Hur receives each the resources helium needs to behaviour his work,” helium said.
Hur vowed connected Thursday to “conduct the assigned probe with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment.”
“I mean to travel the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fearfulness oregon favor, and volition grant the spot placed successful maine to execute this service,” helium said successful a statement.
Hur besides served arsenic an adjunct US lawyer successful Maryland earlier moving arsenic the main subordinate lawman lawyer wide with the Justice Department.
Prior to his clip with the DOJ, Hur was a instrumentality clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and besides clerked for a national appellate judge, Alex Kozinski.
“Despite the information that helium had a gold-plated resume, helium was conscionable a modest, hard worker,” said Stuart Berman, who was a supervisor astatine the Maryland US attorney’s bureau erstwhile Hur worked determination arsenic a enactment prosecutor.
Berman noted the wide assortment of cases Hur took connected arsenic a prosecutor, which included convulsive crime, medicine fraud and owe fraud.
Hur was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to the US lawyer occupation successful 2018, and astatine the clip helium received praise from some of Maryland’s Democratic senators, who expressed assurance successful his quality to grip captious issues facing the state.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, praised the assignment connected Thursday.
“Former Maryland US Attorney Rob Hur is simply a authoritative of the highest caliber and integrity,” Hogan said successful a statement. “I person religion successful his quality to get the facts and clasp powerfulness to account. In this country, nary 1 is supra the law.”
Thursday’s announcement came hours aft the White House counsel’s bureau said successful a connection that Biden’s aides located documents with classified markings astatine 2 locations wrong his location successful Wilmington, Delaware.
An archetypal batch of documents discovered erstwhile Biden’s idiosyncratic attorneys were packing files astatine his erstwhile backstage bureau successful DC contained 10 classified documents, including US quality materials and briefing memos astir Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.
At the Justice Department, Hur worked with Rosenstein connected Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference successful the 2016 election, the erstwhile lawman lawyer wide told CNN.
Hur “was my constituent idiosyncratic and helium had biweekly meetings with Mueller’s squad and past briefed maine connected the advancement of the Russian peculiar counsel investigation,” Rosenstein said. “So helium has seen that firsthand and helium knows that you request not to beryllium influenced by authorities and marque decisions based connected information and the instrumentality and the Department of Justice policy, and I deliberation we tin number connected Rob to bash that.”
Rosenstein added: “Rob, similar a batch of radical I worked with astatine DOJ, believes it is important to prosecute successful nationalist work and feels a consciousness of responsibility. So it is hard to accidental ‘no’ erstwhile idiosyncratic calls connected you to bash what you cognize is going to beryllium a an unpleasant job.”
While serving arsenic a apical adjutant to Rosenstein, Hur besides appeared astatine a Trump White House property league successful July 2017, touting the administration’s efforts to ace down connected the notorious MS-13 gang. The quality astatine the White House property briefing podium was antithetic arsenic DOJ mostly seeks to support a region from the White House connected matters that could beryllium seen arsenic governmental successful nature.
This communicative has been updated with further details.
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