When Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as special counsel overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents during his time as vice president, it was tempting to see the move not only as a slam dunk, but as an extension of Garland’s larger effort to restore the DOJ’s tattered reputation. After all, it was clear from the very beginning that Hur would not find any criminal wrongdoing—the documents Biden possessed were clearly k