Dan Rodricks: Epic no-win for Robert Hur in Biden probe | STAFF COMMENTARY

Robert Hur gave us too much information as special counsel in the Biden classified documents case. He should have simply said there was no evidence of criminal intent by President Biden, and left it at that. He should not have characterized Biden as an old man with memory problems; that was so politically fraught, in this election year, that it instantly subjected Hur, a Republican, to harsh attacks from Democrats.

So, he should have known better.

But, now that we’ve learned more about Hur’s investigation, now that we’ve heard him criticized by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, he looks less like a partisan hack than a public servant trapped in a no-win situation in the middle of the country’s dispiriting political divide.

And Hur’s predicament — and his vilification — enlarges a concern about the future of public service.

Some background:

Long before he was attacked for either gratuitously smearing President Biden or going too easy on the old fella, Hur was a respected federal prosecutor — a graduate of Harvard and Stanford who had worked in the Department of Justice overseeing counterterrorism and corporate fraud.

When Hur was appointed U.S. Attorney for Maryland in 2017, the state’s two senators, both Democrats, said they were impressed with his record. A fellow prosecutor called him “intelligent, engaging, conscientious, deliberate, well-liked and well-respected.” Rod Rosenstein, the man Hur replaced as the chief federal prosecutor here, praised him as “a brilliant lawyer who consistently demonstrates exceptional civility, professionalism and humility.”

Hur served as the Baltimore-based U.S. Attorney for a few years, and his office took on some high-profile cases, including the successful prosecutions of then-Mayor Catherine Pugh and Darryl De Sousa, the former police commissioner.

After departing the Baltimore office, Hur went into private practice. We did not hear his name again until Attorney General Merrick Garland made him special counsel for the Biden classified docs case. Hur was the third special counsel so named.

It seemed like a wise thing to do — select experienced and well-respected attorneys from outside Garland’s office to handle investigations of political figures (Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Donald Trump). In theory, this would shield Garland and the Department of Justice from accusations of prejudice.

But, at the same time, it appeared to be a concession to the far-right critics of the so-called “deep state” that career professionals inside the DOJ can’t be trusted. The special counsel appointments seem to be aimed at appeasing those, like Trump, who claim that the DOJ has been “weaponized” against them.

Such complaints — that political investigations are partisan witch hunts — have a lingering aroma in Baltimore. It was one of the first lines of defense raised by Marilyn Mosby, the former Baltimore State’s attorney, when she was indicted on federal charges two years ago.

Mosby claimed that prosecutors were vindictive and held strong personal feelings against her. As evidence, she noted that the lead prosecutor in her case had made a combined $200 in campaign contributions to two of her political opponents. Mosby’s claim was a stretch, but it was dumb of the federal prosecutor to have made donations to any political campaign, opening himself to accusations of bias.

Still, Mosby’s line of attack did not work; she is awaiting sentencing following her federal convictions.

In the matter of Hur and the Biden classified docs, there did not seem to be any reason to suspect Hur of bias against the president. Though he’s a registered Republican, everything in Hur’s resume suggested an experienced, professional prosecutor, nothing more or less. If anything, his political affiliation gave more weight to his conclusion that Biden had committed no crime.

But, by characterizing President Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur crossed the line from objective investigator to partisan, at least in the eyes of Biden’s defenders.

His report to Garland is much longer and more nuanced than that — Hur was trying to convey how he believed a sympathetic jury might see Biden — but nuance has no place in politics today. Members of Congress eat nuance for breakfast.

So Democrats knocked Hur for being biased and unprofessional, while Republicans bashed him for not recommending that Biden be indicted. The other day, testifying before a House committee, Hur could not win — he was condemned on one hand, for giving Biden a pass and on the other, for serving the Republican agenda by raising an alarm about Biden’s age and competence.

That’s an epic no-win.

Is Hur a partisan hack? His record as a federal prosecutor and DOJ official, going back, off and on, 20 years, would suggest otherwise. In fact, he’s been described as a no-nonsense, low-key lawyer of high legal pedigree, the kind of person the American people should want in our federal justice system.

When Garland made Hur special counsel for the Biden case, Steve Silverman, the Baltimore attorney who defended Pugh, said: “He’s always proven to be a fair-minded, nonpartisan seeker of justice. He’s not going to be politically swayed one way or the other.”

Unfortunately, that characterization has been drowned by all the noise, coming from both sides, about Hur’s report on Biden. Thank you for your service.

We’ve been delivered to a deeply cynical place — where opinions trump facts, everyone is suspected of pushing a personal agenda, and the best intentions are almost instantly dismissed as stridently political.