After law school, Hur was a
law clerk for Judge
Alex Kozinski of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2001 to 2002 and for Chief Justice
William Rehnquist of the
U.S. Supreme Court from 2002 to 2003.
United States Attorney Hur rejoined the Department of Justice as Principal
Associate Deputy Attorney General, a top aide to
Rod Rosenstein after Rosenstein became Deputy Attorney General. He was a liaison to Special Counsel
Robert Mueller's
investigation of Russian interference in the
2016 election. On November 1, 2017, Hur was nominated by President
Donald Trump to be the next United States Attorney for the
District of Maryland. On March 22, 2018, his nomination was reported out of committee by
voice vote. He was unanimously confirmed in the US Senate by voice vote later the same day. He was sworn in on April 9, 2018. On February 3, 2021, Hur announced his resignation, effective February 15. Following his departure from the U.S. Attorney position, Hur became a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of
Gibson Dunn, a national law firm.
Special Counsel On January 12, 2023, Attorney General
Merrick Garland appointed Hur to oversee the
United States Department of Justice's investigation into President
Joe Biden's alleged
mishandling of classified documents during his time as
vice president. Garland notified Congress on February 7, 2024, that Hur had concluded his investigation, and no charges were recommended. In the final report with which Hur concluded his investigation, he stated that he found "evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen." He concluded that "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter ... even if there was no policy against charging a sitting president", because the "evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." He also cited Biden's memory as a factor, concluding that "Biden would likely present himself to a jury ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." The White House rebuked Hur's characterization as inappropriate, politicized commentary that veered from standards of unbiased, legal analysis. Other Democratic Party voices, such as
James Carville and
David Axelrod, expressed concern that the report would negatively contribute to Biden's image in the ongoing political conversation about his age in the
2024 presidential election. Associate deputy attorney general Bradley Weinsheimer, the DOJ's senior nonpolitical career official, rejected White House criticisms in an official response, stating that the report's comments "fall well within the department’s standards for public release". On March 11, 2024, Hur resigned from the Department of Justice. A redacted version of Hur's interview transcript was released on March 12. According to NPR, the transcript painted "a more nuanced portrait of the president than was described in Hur's report". The Associated Press wrote that "the reality of the situation... isn’t as clear as either Biden or Hur portrayed." According to
The Washington Post, "Biden doesn’t come across as being as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be." On the same day, Hur testified about his investigation before the
House Judiciary Committee. In May 2025, audio from Hur's interview was publicly released by
Axios. According to
The Hill, during the audio Biden "haltingly answered and frequently paused as he seemingly struggled to answer [questions]". In the 2025 book
Original Sin, which detailed President Biden's physical and mental decline, the Special Prosecutor’s' office found a 2017 audio recording of then-former Vice President Biden discussing, with his sister, Val, and his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, that Biden "found all the classified stuff downstairs". During an in-person interview with the Special Prosecutor’s office, President Biden did not remember the year his son died until he was prompted by Rachel Cotton of the White House Counsel's Office. Because of the report, in February 2024, the White House "declared war on its own Justice Department". During the interview, Hur only asked about the 2017 to 2018 time period and did not bring up Beau Biden. During the presidential debate, when the general public watched what Hur described in his report, Hur, even though he was "vilified for saying", felt sad for Biden. However, one person wrote Hur was vindicated.
Return to private practice Hur returned to his old firm, King and Spalding, in September 2024. Hur was hired by Harvard University after the Trump administration threatened the university's federal funding. ==Personal life==