University of Maryland/Facebook (Cara Hur) Robert Hur and his wife, Cara Brewer Hur.
Robert Hur is a former U.S. Attorney who has been named the special counsel to investigate possible unauthorized retention of classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home and office.
Hur, now a lawyer in private practice, was appointed to be U.S. Attorney in Maryland in 2017 by then President Donald Trump and received unanimous Senate confirmation, according to CBS News, which added that he was “also a top aide to now-FBI Director Christopher Wray.” Hur co-authored papers on white-collar crime with Wray, according to The Baltimore Sun.
He once clerked for former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Judge Alex Kozinski, according to a University of Maryland biography for him. Rehnquist was a conservative, and Kozinski was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. Kozinski was hired by former President Donald Trump in 2022 in a legal fight against Twitter, according to Reuters.
Another special counsel, Jack Smith, is already investigating possible retention of classified documents by former President Donald Trump.
His politics were discussed in a 2021 Baltimore Sun article that reported that Hur had to “decide if he will seek to become a political anomaly like his predecessor — a Republican U.S. attorney who stays on in a Democratic administration” once Joe Biden was elected president. Instead, Hur went into private practice, his law firm’s biography for him says.
According to The Washington Post, Hur “personally tried the first federal jury trial held in-person in the Washington, D.C., region during the pandemic.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Attorney General Merrick Garland Appointed Hur to Investigate ‘Possible Unauthorized Removal & Retention of Classified Documents’
GettyU.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland delivers a statement at the U.S. Department of Justice August 11, 2022 in Washington, DC.
According to NPR, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as a special counsel “to investigate how classified documents came to be located at President Biden’s Delaware residence and a think tank office in Washington he used for about three years.”
The White House confirmed that “a small number” of materials with “classified markings” were found and turned over, NPR reported.
Garland is authorizing Hur to investigate “possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records,” NPR reported.
“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, according to CBS News.
2. Hur, a Partner in a Washington D.C. Law Firm, Is on the University of Maryland Board of Regents & Was Named Chairman of a Group Exploring anti-Asian Hate Crimes
According to the University of Maryland System, Hur is a member of its Board of Regents.
That biography says that Robert K. Hur “is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Crisis Management Practice Group.”
The bio calls Hur a “seasoned trial lawyer and advocate,” who “brings decades of experience in government and in private practice, including service in senior leadership positions with the U.S. Department of Justice, to guide companies and individuals facing white-collar criminal matters, regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions, internal investigations, and related civil litigation.”
According to the bio, he is also a “member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and the National Security Practice Group.”
Maryland Larry Hogan, a Republican, named Hur, who is Asian-American, to lead an Asian American Hate Crime Workgroup in 2021, according to CBS News, which added that the group was also charged with addressing “the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and violence.
3. Hur, Who Met His Wife Cara Brewer on a Subway Train, Was the 48th U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland
According to their 2004 wedding announcement in The New York Times, Robert Kyoung Hur’s wife is Cara Elizabeth Brewer. They married in Glen Mar United Methodist Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, according to the Times.
Cara Brewer was described as an “associate in the McLean, Va., office of Pillsbury Winthrop, the San Francisco law firm,” in that article.
His parents are Haesook Hur and Dr. Young Hur of Monroe Township New Jersey, The Times reported. Her father is an anesthesiologist, the New York Times article says.
It says they met on a subway train and, when Hur learned Brewer was a law student, he 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,” the Times article quotes Hur as saying, adding that Brewer spoke to him first.
On Facebook, Cara Hur shares pictures of her kids and husband, as well as articles on education. For example, she shared an Atlantic article on Finland and education that reads, “The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.”
Cara Hur’s Instagram page is set to private.
Hur has a long resume in federal prosecution, according to the University of Maryland bio.
“Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Hur served as the 48th U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland,” it says.
“Presidentially appointed and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he served from 2018 to 2021 as the chief federal law enforcement officer in Maryland, setting strategic priorities for and supervising one of the largest and busiest U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the nation,” the bio says.
“Before serving as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Hur served as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from 2017 to 2018.”
4. Hur Graduated From Stanford Law School, Clerked for William Rehnquist & Prosecuted the Democratic Baltimore Mayor
According to the biography, Hur “received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and won the Kirkwood Moot Court Competition.”
He served “as a law clerk for William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,” the Maryland bio says.
“Mr. Hur received his A.B. degree, magna cum laude with highest honors, from Harvard College and studied philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge,” it adds.
As U.S. Attorney, Hur “led criminal cases against former Mayor Catherine Pugh and two state delegates,” reported The Baltimore Sun. Pugh was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Pugh was a Democrat.
“Baltimore City faces many pressing issues, and we need our leaders to place the interests of the citizens above their own,” said United States Attorney Robert K. Hur in that release. “Catherine Pugh betrayed the public trust for her personal gain and now faces three years in federal prison, where there is no parole—ever. Law enforcement will remain vigilant to ensure that our citizens receive the honesty and professionalism they deserve from government officials and will prosecute officials who betray the public’s trust.”
5. Hur Prosecuted Baltimore Gang Members & Served as Principal Counselor to Then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
As U.S. Attorney, Hur was involved in the prosecution of gang members in Baltimore, according to the Daily Record.
“Montana Barronette led one of the most violent gangs in Baltimore City,” Hur said in a 2019 statement into the gang leader’s life sentence, according to Daily Record. “He and his fellow gang members terrorized the Sandtown neighborhood (of west Baltimore) in order to profit from the drug trade.”
According to his Gibson Dunn biography, Hur was once a “member of the Department’s senior leadership team and the principal counselor to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.” In that position, he assisted Rosenstein, who served under Trump, “with oversight of all components of the Department including the National Security, Civil, Criminal, and Antitrust Divisions, all 93 U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the bio says.
The Baltimore Sun reported that Hur, in 2016, “defended Vascular Solutions Inc., a medical device manufacturer accused in a federal indictment of a deceptive sales campaign.” The firm was acquitted, the newspaper reported.
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