Robert Mueller, former FBI director, Russia special counsel, dead at 81
Robert Mueller, former FBI director, Russia special counsel, dead at 81
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose high profile probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election failed to establish a criminal conspiracy with the Trump campaign, died at 81, his family announced Saturday.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away last night. His family asks that their privacy be respected,” Mueller’s family said.
President Trump could barely contain his glee, posting on his Truth Social minutes later: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Mueller’s cause of death was not immediately known, though he had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Mueller, the son of Alice Truesdale and Dupont executive Robert Swan Mueller Jr., a World War II Navy officer, was born in New York City on August 7, 1944. He grew up outside Philadelphia, graduated from Princeton University in 1966 with a politics degree and earned a master’s in international relations from New York University the next year.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps rifle platoon to fight in Vietnam after a chum from Princeton was killed in the war. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his service. Mueller received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1973.
He later became a top prosecutor and litigator. President George W. Bush nominated him to be the sixth FBI director just days before the Sept. 11th terror attacks, and he led the agency until 2013.
He was named special counsel by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in 2017, tasked with proving whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Trump.
His probe resulted in the Department of Justice publication of the 448-page “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” although it was colloquially known simply as the “Mueller report.”
‘Witch hunt’
He assembled a team of top prosecutors who Trump would regularly refer to as “killers” and “thugs.”
Through the course of the probe, they interviewed figures including former campaign chair Paul Manafort, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, daughter Ivanka Trump, son Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump’s team negotiated to have the president submit answers to Mueller’s questions in writing.
The report resulted in 37 indictments and seven guilty pleas — but its failure to identify Trump campaign “collusion” resulted in the president declaring he was “totally exonerated.”
Trump called it an “illegal takedown,” having long called it a “witch hunt” designed to harm his presidency.
“There’s no obstruction, there’s no collusion, there’s no nothing,” he said.
The report said it “identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.”
“While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” it said on the issue of alleged obstruction of justice.
Mueller avoided a definitive obstruction ruling on Trump, citing Department of Justice guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president.
“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said in a televised statement announcing the report.
Mueller’s fearsome prosecutorial reputation came down to earth when he finally testified before Congress about his report in 2019, appearing before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
During five hours of testimony, he offered brief answers, sat while lawmakers blasted his work product, frequently asked them to repeat questions, and repeatedly said he wouldn’t go beyond what was said in his report.
Trump at the time called it a “great day for the Republican Party,” and the White House called the testimony an “epic embarrassment for the Democrats.”
‘Bob has lost a step’
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who infuriated Democrats by releasing a summary of Mueller’s report before it came out, wrote in his memoir that Mueller’s hands were “trembling” when they met to discuss the report. “Wow,” he told Rosenstein. “Bob has lost a step.”
Mueller’s Parkinson’s diagnosis became known after House Oversight and Government Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) tried to bring him in for an interview as his panel probes the government’s actions in the probe of Jeffrey Epstein.
His family announced the diagnosis in August 2025 and the committee withdrew its request.
LEAVE A RESPONSE
What do you think? Post a comment.