The previous particular counsel Robert Okay. Hur, denounced by Democrats for his unsparing description of President Biden’s reminiscence lapses, had considered one of his personal throughout his testimony on Tuesday earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee.
Consultant James R. Comer, a Kentucky Republican, made passing reference to Dana A. Remus, a Democratic lawyer who had served as White Home counsel below Mr. Biden from January 2021 to July 2022.
Mr. Hur crinkled an eyebrow and corrected him: No, he mentioned, she occupied that submit below President Obama.
The misstep was an remoted second in an in any other case poised and exact look by Mr. Hur, 51, who was testifying about his report on the investigation into Mr. Biden’s dealing with of categorised paperwork. Mr. Hur, a Trump-era Justice Division official identified amongst former colleagues for conserving a cool head in high-stress, high-stakes conditions, incited a furor after describing the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Earlier than his work as particular counsel, Mr. Hur, a graduate of Stanford Regulation College who clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was greatest identified for his 11-month stint as the highest aide to the deputy legal professional basic, Rod Rosenstein, in 2017 and 2018. It was a time of extraordinary upheaval, when Mr. Rosenstein oversaw the installment of a particular counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to analyze President Donald J. Trump’s dealings with Russia. Each males lived below the fixed menace of being fired by Mr. Trump, who noticed the appointment as a private betrayal.
Mr. Hur, who stepped down as particular counsel this week, did little to assuage critics in his look earlier than lawmakers. However he held his floor towards Democrats, who noticed his report as a partisan hit job, and Republicans, who criticized him for declining to indict Mr. Biden regardless of some proof that the president had willfully retained some categorised materials.
He defended himself within the unhurried, forceful cadence of a veteran prosecutor addressing a skeptical jury, claiming he had supplied an evaluation — one which has been disputed — of Mr. Biden’s psychological acuity not out of malice however to justify his determination to not deliver fees. His tone, flat and matter-of-fact, didn’t change when rebuffing Republican efforts to amplify the criticism of Mr. Biden within the report.
One pissed off conservative on the committee went as far as to explain Mr. Hur, a registered Republican, as a member of the “Praetorian Guard” defending the Washington elites, together with Mr. Biden.
The listening to room was crammed for Mr. Hur’s testimony, as reporters haggled for seats and an extended line grew exterior for individuals who confirmed up late.
Including to the stress in the beginning: a loud protest contained in the listening to room by demonstrators calling for Israel to finish its conflict in Gaza. They have been shortly eliminated by the police earlier than the sanctioned shouting, and there could be loads of it, commenced.
When Mr. Hur arrived, he sat alone within the middle of the lengthy witness desk. He wore a blue go well with with a lavender tie. From the entrance, going through an array of cameras, he projected an air of unflappability as Democratic and Republican lawmakers started their high-volume denunciations of his work, and one another.
However from the facet, it was a unique story. Mr. Hur perched tensely on the sting of his upholstered chair, bracing himself for confrontation.
He started his opening remarks, like many pressured to face a hostile reckoning in a Capitol Hill committee room, by acknowledging the sacrifice and braveness of his household.
Mr. Hur advised the story of his mother and father’ flight, as younger youngsters, from the Korean Warfare — the American troopers who supplied meals to his ravenous father, his mom’s escape from the war-torn north, the lengthy and anxious journey to the USA.
“Their lives, and mine, would have been very different were it not for this country,” mentioned Mr. Hur, a barely perceptive quaver in his supply.
That was as emotional as he received all day.
