Special Counsel Hur Arranged His Retirement

[gab13by13]

WTF does that mean that Hur arranged his retirement one day before he is scheduled to testify before a Magat House committee.

Hur previously stated that he planned to resign on the 15th. Who did he arrange his early retirement with, Merrick Garland?

Now Hur is a private citizen and is not constrained or bound by DOJ policies when he gives his testimony today.

I swear that when Garland was confirmed and when he said that he would not be partisan he was only speaking to Magats.

Hur is bringing a Magat attorney with him to the hearing to make sure that he doesn't perjure himself when he bashes President Biden.

What Garland is allowing his other special counsel, Weiss, do is also BS. That's fodder for another thread.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/robert-hur-resigns-with-help-from-trumpworld-figures-ahead-of-house-hearing/ar-BB1jJhav?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=93392a54fdb34c2f80b4cac4bad48f01&ei=8

[gab13by13]

1. Morning Joe

Morning Joe says that Hur has been working with GOP operatives.

https://www.rawstory.com/robert-hur-2667491887/

[Mister Ed]

2. Would Hur need to arrange his retirement with Garland?

It's obvious what Hur is up to. He wants to be unconstrained by DOJ policy when he contributes to the GOP sham hearing. But I don't understand this question:

Who did he arrange his early retirement with, Merrick Garland?

Would he really have to arrange his retirement with Garland? Couldn't he just up and retire if he chose to?

[gab13by13]

5. Maybe he arranged it with himself,

but according to morning Joe Hur has been working with DOJ operatives. Maybe he arranged his retirement with their consent.

Hur previously stated that he would retire on the 15th, what made him change his mind?

"According to multiple sources familiar with Mr Hur’s plans, the special counsel, who is appearing before the Judiciary Committee at the request of the Republican majority led by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, has arranged his departure from the Department of Justice to be official as of Monday 11 March, one day before he is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill," wrote Andrew Feinberg. "Instead of appearing as a DOJ employee who is bound by the ethical guidelines which govern the behaviour of federal prosecutors, he will appear as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony."

[Happy Hoosier]

33. If he is no longer a representative of the DOJ...

... then he shouldn't be testifying as a on DOJ matters.

I know when I left Government service, I was admonished that I cannot speak publically about any matter considered sensistive, even if unclassified, without DoD consent.

[Escurumbele]

27. If Garland is/was his boss I would think he had to talk to Garland about his decision to retire early.

I am not saying Garland is complicit, I have no proof, the only proof is the outcome of events that could and should have been different, and these events and how they happened do point to Garland, they were all in his power to change the horrible outcome that we are now experiencing.

I had my comments about Garland a few years ago, and I was creamed here at DU, and it is not that I have a crystal ball or that I can see the future, but I have learned that we need to pay attention to events and immediately ask ourselves "why was that decision made, what are the consequences", and while I was starting to feel uncomfortable with Garland's actions, I tried to share my thoughts to find out if I was getting paranoid or other people were also staring to see that not all was well with the guy, but now we have all seen that Garland seems to be doing a Comey, and the power he has to screw us all up is too big. As always, I hope I am wrong.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. Wouldn't a DOJ retiree be constrained by policies of DOJ even as a retiree of DOJ?

It's like when you sign a national security agreement when working in a government agency, like say the NSA, a retiree would still be obligated to follow the provisions of that security agreement.

Since the retiree is no doubt receiving a pension for his work, I would think he should be required not to violate policies.

[gab13by13]

6. Not what Dan Goldman said last night.

[underpants]

4. Blatant

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. Doing it out in the open and blatantly, a true republican.

[Lovie777]

8. All I can say is that the shithole party are extremely desperate........................

and if Hur lies under oath, the DOJ will have cause for indictment, and as the sane people know, the GQP lies and makes up shit.

They know Pres Biden and VP Harris can and win in 2024.

[onetexan]

15. Yup. Wreaks of foul play to the hogh heavens.

[katmondoo]

28. My prediction

A Landslide win for Biden.

[onecaliberal]

37. The DOJ is responsible for this shit show. You can thank garland for today.

[gab13by13]

9. sop posted this last night, I hope he/she doesn't mind my reposting it.

sop (9,795 posts)
21. Some additional reporting on Hur's testimony before the Judiciary Committe:
Reply to gab13by13 (Original post)
Mon Mar 11, 2024, 10:11 PM
"Hur is appearing before the Judiciary Committee at the request of Jim Jordan...Instead of appearing as a DOJ employee who is bound by the ethical guidelines which govern the behaviour of federal prosecutors, he will appear as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony...if he was still a federal employee, DOJ would have to approve his testimony and they’d be involved in his appearance tomorrow."

"The Judiciary Committee minority...have also been alarmed by Hur’s choice of associates during the lead-up to his appearance...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 during his testimony before the committee."

"Burck represented three Trump White House officials, Trump’s first White House counsel, Don McGahn, his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his 2016 campaign chairman and White House chief strategist, Steve Bannon. And he has served as a board member of the Fox Corporation, operator of the right-wing, Republican-aligned Fox News Channel, since 2021."

"Hur and Burck...have long histories as Republican partisans...Hur (worked) as Principle Associate Deputy Attorney General...when (AG) Barr was working to minimise political damage to Mr Trump from the report produced by the Mueller investigation...(and) block Senate Democrats from viewing the Bush-era documents related to now-Justice Kavanaugh."

"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....Hur’s decision to seek advice preparing him for testimony from former Trump-era DOJ spokesperson Sarah Isgur...has Democrats quite alarmed."

"Hur’s choice of associates marks him as a player on Mr Trump’s team instead of the nonpartisan prosecutor he is supposed to be...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."

"Committee members have taken note of Hur’s team and are expecting him to attempt to inflict as much political harm on Mr Biden as he possibly can....People like Isgur and Burck...help him weaponise the report he wrote in order to damage the president."

“Committee members expect Hur to double down on his descriptions of Mr Biden as a 'well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory' even though former prosecutors and legal ethics experts have said his comments about Mr Biden violated Justice Department guidelines on disparaging persons who were not to be charged with crimes."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/robert-hur-trump-special-counsel-b2510944.html

[Escurumbele]

29. Hmm, reading that reminds me of something.

WHY HAS THE UNREDACTED MULLER REPORT NOT BEEN SHARED WITH THE PUBLIC AT THIS TIME? Is Jack Smith using it against trump and that is why? By now I would have hoped the COMPLETE Muller report be available to us all.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. So the GOP has created a mini shit storm by Hur's "early" retirement. If they were smart . . . .

. . . .they would have rescheduled the hearing for one innocuous bullshit reason or another until after the 15th.. No one would have questioned it as much as they're questioning Hur's timing.

But they're not smart.

[gab13by13]

11. Garland released a portion of Hur's report to Gym Jordan,

that is going to contradict Biden's recollection of his son's death to Hur. Look for Magats to make a big deal out of this.

I shudder to see the MSM headlines tomorrow. Magats have nothing to run on, they need to run on BS nonsense.

[Lovie777]

17. Back to Pres Biden's memory where it Hurts............................

his dead son. This will backfire on them.

But Hur got other issues he will testify to under oath. Democrats will challenge him and it will be a thing of beauty.

[Joinfortmill]

12. There's more to know here.

[Lonestarblue]

13. Garland did not do his due diligence when he appointed Hur. He just handed Republicans an attack dog.

And can anyone imagine a Republican AG appointing a Democrat to investigate a Republican president? No. Actions like this make Democrats look weak. I know that Democrats try to do what’s right, but you need to win elections so you can do the right things. Republicans never care that they look partisan.

[gab13by13]

16. Garland purposely picked Hur

to show Magats that he wasn't partisan, he doesn't give a shit apparently if he's partisan against Democrats.

[617Blue]

14. Hur will be Attorney General if Dump wins.

[gab13by13]

18. There must be some secret DOJ memo

that forbids a special counsel to be a Democrat.

Robert Mueller is a Republican and even Jack Smith is an Independent.

Has there ever been a Democratic special counsel?

[sop]

19. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have been reviewing transcripts of Hur's taped interview with

Joe Biden, released to them just before the hearing. They found this:

"Confusion over the timing of the death of Biden’s adult son Beau — who died May 30, 2015 — was highlighted by Hur in his report as an example of the president’s memory lapses. But the transcript shows that Hur never asked Biden about his son specifically, as a visibly angry Biden had suggested in comments to reporters the day the report was released." (From HuffPo article)

[agingdem]

20. Breathe...

Robert Hur is a GOP puppet..his credibility is shot....what's Hur going to testify to..Biden is old...yup..were decades old documents/diary discovered in Biden home/office from his days as VP?..uh huh...upon discovery of those documents, did Biden notify the DOJ?..why yes he did...did Biden refuse to turn over those documents, insisting they were his?...nope...were those documents returned to the Justice Department within hours of notice?...safe and sound....Biden is old...again, agreed..

when Hur's crap fiction was release, the GOP went into collective "Gotcha!" mode...and then came the SOTU...and doddering old Biden kicked MAGA ass in a 90 minute speech for the ages...and he had a fucking good time doing it...and yes, Biden is old...

[gab13by13]

21. You are making a good argument

that Garland had no need to appoint Hur as special counsel.

What will happen shortly is an attempt to flip the narrative back to "Biden is too old." That may be BS, but it will be the Magats #1 campaign agenda.

Do you really believe that the MSM will call this hearing BS? You and I and the rest of DU members know it's BS but having to go through this hearing is on Merrick Garland.

[agingdem]

34. the MAGA assholes have been going at Hunter Biden for years...

and nothing other than the Trump's ass-kissing cretin's total humiliation...and remember the MSM went with Fox and GOP talking points...I sense a MSM sea-change..MSNBC evening cable hosts are openly voicing their disgust with Trump and his acolytes..Katie Britt's rebuttal was fodder for late night comedians...George Stephanopoulos destroyed vapid Nancy Mace...Trump's attempt to shred Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars backfired so spectacularly, Kimmel's reading and the audience response toTrump's post played on a 24 loop of headline news...Trump's Hitler-speak/dictator Day1/I'm a victim/racist/burn the constitution/ my documents/free the J6 "patriots"/ crazy E. Jean Carroll/deranged Jack Smith/stuttering Joe Biden/the banks got their money/RINO/Truth Social all caps spewed vomit is boring and cut off in mid speech with followed up fact checks..

on to the next MAGA OMG Joe Biden is old big thing..

[edhopper]

22. Just more examples

about Garland's poor judgement on appointing SCs.

[GuppyGal]

23. I'm not listening to this SHIT !!!!!!!!!!!! nt

[LiberalFighter]

24. Is any of the material in the binder Hur carried into the hearing DOJ property?

[lark]

25. Garland is not democracy's (small d) friend. He's shown his true colors, no matter what he says.

He is the friend of the right wing, helps them every way he can. TSF gets 2 years to sell off the US's secrets and Biden gets 5 days. He refuses to indict congresscritters (Perry) even when he has full proof of their insurrection, he waits 2 years to appoint a special counsel. Menendez gets tackled and hard - quickly!

That is the thing that will send Garland to hell, he deliberately tanked American democracy so he would seem bi-partisan. America could die because of Garlands' fear and inaction. I hope it haunts him every single day of the 4th Reich that could come, I hope his family shames him.

[Martin68]

26. I view this as an admission of guilt regarding his hit job on Biden in his report.

[Blue Idaho]

30. More Dirty Tricks

Coming from our DoJ and its fearless leader.

[Renew Deal]

31. He's testifying, so was this BS?

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/robert-hur-hearing-biden-03-12-24/index.html

[TwilightZone]

35. The argument seems to be...

that because he's now a private citizen, he'll change his testimony.

[Renew Deal]

36. He can't lie

Does it mean he can say more?

[TwilightZone]

39. That seems to be the claim.

The inference seems to be that because the DOJ doesn't have control over his testimony and that their ethics rules don't apply, he can say whatever he wants.

The Raw Story article leaves out a lot of context. The original opinion piece in the Independent seems to better lay out the potential issues.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/robert-hur-trump-special-counsel-b2510944.html

[Renew Deal]

40. So he can act as a political operative

[gab13by13]

38. No that isn't the main point,

As a member of DOJ he is bound by DOJ norms and rules. As a member of DOJ if his testimony violates DOJ policies then Merrick Garland can respond. As a private citizen DOJ has no right to respond to Hur. Plus, Hur brought his own pro-Magat attorney with him.

[dchill]

32. If it walks like a duck and smells like a dead rat...

... it's NOT a good public servant. And the smell is coming from the right.

[Igel]

41. Was Robert Mueller employed by the DOJ when he testified? n/t

[republianmushroom]

42. Sure do smell a little bad.

Going to look a little.................political, maybe.

[live love laugh]

43. Why doesn't someone mention that he conveniently retired?

The caption should say it if nothing else.