Robert Hur, the former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney who declined to prosecute President Joe Biden after classified materials were found in his Delaware home and a former office in Washington, D.C., will appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as a private citizen. Hur's decision to surround himself with Republican partisans and notorious figures linked to former President Donald Trump has raised alarms among Democrats on the panel.
According to multiple sources familiar with Hur's plans, the special counsel has arranged his departure from the Department of Justice to be official as of Monday, March 11, one day before he is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill. By appearing as a private citizen, Hur will not be bound by the ethical guidelines that govern the behavior of federal prosecutors.
A Judiciary Committee source said Hur's departure from government service the day before he testifies is a major red flag for Democrats on the panel. "That makes it even more problematic from our perspective ... if he was still a federal employee, DOJ would have to approve his testimony and they'd be involved in his appearance tomorrow," they said.
In preparing for the hearing, Hur has turned to William Burck, a veteran Washington lawyer with deep ties to the Republican political establishment, to serve as his counsel. Burck, a former federal prosecutor and White House official under President George W. Bush, has represented several Trump White House officials during the Mueller investigation and has served as a board member of the Fox Corporation since 2021.
Hur and Burck do not appear to have worked together directly, but on Burck's LinkedIn page, Hur is listed as having endorsed his litigation skills. A Judiciary Committee source noted that both men have long histories as Republican partisans, citing Hur's work as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General during the Trump administration and Burck's efforts to block Senate Democrats from viewing Bush-era documents related to now-Justice Kavanaugh.
The source also revealed that Hur's legal team has not been particularly communicative with the Democratic side of the panel during the run-up to the former special counsel's testimony. Combined with Hur's decision to seek advice from former Trump-era DOJ spokesperson Sarah Isgur, Democrats are quite alarmed about his upcoming appearance.
Hannah Muldavin, a spokesperson for the Congressional Integrity Project, told The Independent that Hur's choice of associates marks him as a player on Trump's team instead of the nonpartisan prosecutor he is supposed to be. "Despite recommending no criminal charges against Joe Biden, Robert Hur decided to make unnecessary, partisan, political attacks against the President in his report. The partisan political operatives Hur has enlisted to help him prepare for his testimony only underscores how this Trump-appointed, lifelong Republican is yet another player in the MAGA effort to aide Donald Trump and hurt Joe Biden in the 2024 election," she said.
Another source told The Independent that committee members have taken note of Hur's team and are expecting him to attempt to inflict as much political harm on Biden as he possibly can. "Where people like Isgur and Bill Burck come in is to help him weaponize the report he wrote in order to damage the president," they said.
Republicans, on the other hand, see Hur's testimony as an opportunity to keep scrutiny of Biden's memory in the spotlight for as long as possible, with the hearing offering a high-profile opportunity to re-litigate the politically damaging findings. GOP-led committees have demanded the Justice Department turn over any transcripts, video, or audio from Biden's interview with Hur, in which the president reportedly couldn't recall certain facts about his life.
The situation has drawn comparisons to the testimony of former special counsel Robert Mueller, who, like Hur, did not recommend criminal charges against the sitting president. However, at the time, top House Republicans argued that asking Mueller to testify was a purely political exercise by Democrats.
