Special Counsel Expected Heat for Biden Inquiry. His Report Sparked a Political Inferno. – WSJ

WASHINGTON Robert Hur, the special counsel behind a withering report detailing President Biden s sloppy handling of classified documents, always expected blowback, friends and former colleagues say.

It has been particularly intense. 

A bipartisan chorus is accusing Hur, a former Justice Department official during the Trump administration, of trying to skew the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Republicans allege a double standard over Hur s finding that charges weren t warranted against Biden, as former President Donald Trump faces felony charges related to his own handling of classified material at his Florida estate. Democrats say Hur s portrayal of Biden as a doddering old man dealt the president a political blow that feels intentional.

Some current and former law-enforcement officials came to Hur s defense, saying a painfully detailed report was necessary to explain his team s decision that charges weren t justified.

The special counsel is statutorily required to provide a report to the department and the American people thoroughly detailing what he deems to be the facts, and Hur did that, said Jay Town, a former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney.

Still others said the tone, at times patronizing and disdainful, went beyond a reasoned explanation of his decision and strayed into the kind of criticism one would expect from a political opponent.

Hur s 345-page report contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions, said former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served during the Obama administration. Another former federal prosecutor, Mimi Rocah, said: Once Hur said the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, he should have stopped.

Hur, 50 years old, previously had a front-row seat to the reputational damage that comes with being a special counsel. As the top aide to former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he helped oversee Robert Mueller s investigation into ties between Trump s campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. The inquiry, which was highly critical of Trump s conduct but also didn t yield criminal charges, left Mueller, a former FBI director and U.S. Marine, with little support across the political spectrum.

via www.wsj.com

Mr. Hur has at least provided many of us with a rare moment of hilarity.