A former career Justice Department prosecutor and former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur has been appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland to serve as special counsel to conduct the investigation of matters that were the subject of the initial investigation by U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. related to the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“Based on Mr. Lausch's initial investigation, I concluded that, under the Special Counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a Special Counsel. In the days since, while Mr. Lausch continued the investigation, the Department identified Mr. Hur for appointment as Special Counsel.

“This appointment underscores for the public the Department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.

  I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner, and in accordance with the highest traditions of this Department.”

Robert Kyoung Hur is an American attorney, who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland from 2018 to 2021.

Hur became a partner at Gibson Dunn, a national law firm based in Washington, D.C., after he left the U.S. Attorney position in Maryland.

Andrew McCabe, a fired FBI deputy director, now a CNN analyst, said Hur was a “well-informed, industrious, hard-working guy.”

Hur was principal counselor to the then deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein at the justice department, in oversight of the national security, civil, criminal and antitrust divisions, and liaised with the White House, congressional committees and federal intelligence, enforcement and regulatory agencies. Garland appointed Hur to handle the investigation amid pressure from Republican lawmakers after a second trove of classified documents dating back to the Obama presidency was found inside both the garage and an adjacent room of Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home.   back...