A Trump-appointed former federal prosecutor experienced in dealing with litigation involving classified information has been tapped to lead the federal probe into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of top secret documents.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 12 announced that Robert Kyoung Hur, 50, will serve as special counsel in overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation.
The probe was initiated following the discovery of classified documents in the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del., and in his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington.
A recipient of the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for superior performance and excellence, Hur is the second special counsel appointed to lead high-profile DOJ investigations into mishandling of classified documents. Garland in November appointed Jack Smith to spearhead the probe into former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Hur received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1995 before spending two years studying philosophy at the University of Cambridge in England. He earned his law degree at Stanford University, where he was executive director of the Stanford Law Review.
Following this 2001 law school graduation, Hur clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski in the U.S. Ninth Circuit’s Court of Appeals 2001-02 before moving to Washington to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist 2002-03.
