Special Counsel Robert K. Hur’s political hit job
13 February 2024
I have previously written about the importance of staying away from evil. Yet evil can be seductive, and Donald J. Trump, although impotent at solving important problems, is very effective at getting professionals to do his bidding at the risk of their reputations and careers. For example, his physicians have damaged their reputations by treating him and at least 22 of his lawyers have faced criminal proceedings, disciplinary proceedings or court sanctions based on their representation of him.
Recently, Jennifer Rubin, an opinion writer for the Washington Post, wrote about how Special Counsel Robert K. Hur has damaged his reputation for integrity regarding his investigation of President Biden, perhaps because of his loyalty to Donald Trump:
Special counsel Robert K. Hur had a single task: determine if President Biden illegally retained sensitive documents after his vice presidency. The answer should not have taken nearly 13 months or a more than 300-page report. Hur also should have avoided trashing “the fundamental ethos of a prosecutor to avoid gratuitous smears,” as former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen told me.
Hur found that “the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” and that prosecution was “also unwarranted based on our consideration of the aggravating and mitigating factors.” He seemed to intentionally disguise that conclusion with contradictory and misleading language that “Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” He conceded that was not legally provable.
Hur acknowledged that Biden’s cooperation, “including by reporting to the government that the Afghanistan documents were in his Delaware garage,” leaves the impression he made “an innocent mistake, rather than acting willfully — that is, with intent to break the law — as the statute requires.” Moreover, Hur conceded that the documents “could have been stored, by mistake and without his knowledge, at his Delaware home since the time he was vice president, as were other classified documents recovered during our investigation.”
That should have been the end of the matter.
But it was Hur’s gratuitous smear about Biden’s age and memory — most egregiously, his far-fetched allegation that Biden could not recall the date of his son Beau’s death — that transformed a snide report into a political screed. Speculating about how a jury might have perceived the president years after the incidents took place was entirely irrelevant because the lack of evidence meant there would be no case.
Former prosecutors were almost uniformly outraged. Jeffrey Toobin remarked, “It was outrageous that Hur put in some of that stuff in this report. That had no place in it.” He added, “There is no reason this report had to be 300 pages. There is no reason this fairly straightforward case had to be treated this way. … The job of prosecutors is to put up or shut up.”
Former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann called Hur’s jabs “entirely inappropriate.” He tweeted, “Of course, no crime was committed by Biden, but as anticipated, Hur takes the opportunity to make a gratuitous political swipe at Biden. … [Attorney General Merrick] Garland was right to have appointed a Special Counsel but wrong to pick Hur and to think only a Republican could fit the bill.” (Weissmann analogized to former FBI chief James B. Comey, who exonerated Hillary Clinton of crimes but savaged her conduct just days before the 2016 election.)
Likewise, ethics guru Matthew Seligman told me, “What Hur should have written — and all he should have written — is that there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that President Biden’s level of intent rose to the willfulness standard required by the statute.” Eisen argues that Hur violated the Justice Department’s prosecutorial principles. (“Federal prosecutors should remain sensitive to the privacy and reputation interests of uncharged parties,” the rules say.). See complete Jennifer Rubin’s opinion piece.
It is unclear whether Hur will be investigated for violating the Hatch Act (using his official authority or influence to affect the result of an election) or other improper conduct as James Comey was, but to many, his actions show that he cannot be trusted to maintain professionalism in political matters.
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I suspect he was promised a high position in a Trump administration. Ethics are no longer sacred.
All sadly true. The one-third of the adult population who are steadfast True Believers are in one unfortunate condition; mostly non-violent, they are more sinned against than sinning. The several hundred professionals, attorneys for the most part, but also physicians and others who swore or pledged their adherence to ethical standards, are another matter entirely. Fully aware that they have placed what they perceive to be their self-interest ahead of the common good, lied to and cheated all of us in the most damaging of ways, they have earned their places in the circle of Hell prescribed for such by Dante.