Kayla EpsteinAnd
Anthony Zurcher,North America Correspondent
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Robert Mueller, the former special counsel whose investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election defined much of Donald Trump’s first term, has died. He was 81 years old.
The cause was not immediately known. CBS News, the BBC’s American partner, confirmed his death.
“It is with deep sadness that we share the news of Bob’s passing” Friday evening, the family told the AP in a statement. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
Mueller previously led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013, taking office just days before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He is credited with transforming the FBI into a modern counterterrorism agency.
Mueller is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann Cabell Standish, their two daughters and three grandchildren.
Mueller’s special counsel investigation scrutinized Trump’s 2016 campaign, drawing sharp criticism from the president.
The president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: “I’m glad he’s dead. He can’t hurt innocent people anymore!”
Mueller’s former employers and colleagues praised him as a longtime public servant. Both presidents under whom he served as FBI director – George W. Bush and Barack Obama – have released tributes.
Bush, who appointed Mueller to head the FBI, said he was “deeply saddened” by his death.
“In 2001, just a week after serving as the 6th director of the FBI, Bob shifted the agency’s mission to protecting the country after 9/11,” he said. “He led the agency effectively, helping to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil.”
Obama called him “one of the best directors in FBI history” and praised his “unrelenting commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our core values.”
Former FBI Director James Comey, who succeeded Mueller at the agency and whose abrupt firing by Trump led to the investigation into Mueller, said: “A great American died today, a man I was fortunate to learn from and stand by. »
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, called him “an extraordinary leader and public servant and a person of the highest integrity.”
Mueller was born in 1944. After studying politics at Princeton University, he joined the Marines and was deployed to Vietnam in 1968.
As a lieutenant, Mueller led a platoon of troops, was wounded twice in combat, and received numerous honors, including the Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart.
After returning from the war, he went to the University of Virginia, where he studied law and graduated in 1973.
In August 2001, Mueller was unanimously confirmed by the Senate as director of the FBI, and he worked at the agency for more than a decade.
He retired from the FBI in 2013.
But four years later, Mueller found himself at the center of a political whirlwind that consumed Washington and would later define his legacy.
Its investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election — and the potential involvement of Trump and his campaign — was a near-daily source of intrigue and speculation for nearly two years, from May 2017 to March 2019.
The court files in his special counsel’s office have been meticulously sorted, each new revelation a potential bombshell that could, depending on one’s perspective, bring down a president or destroy a nation.
Trump condemned Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax”, and considered him one of his greatest political adversaries. Trump has frequently said there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia.
During the investigation, Mueller’s team examined the actions of Russia as well as several of Trump’s top campaign aides and allies. Although his work often made headlines, Mueller himself rarely spoke publicly.
“I didn’t always agree with everything Robert Mueller did,” Andrew Weissmann, a member of Mueller’s team, told the BBC’s Carl Nasman. “I think it’s really important that people know how much integrity and thoughtful decisions he made and how much faith he had, perhaps more than I do, in the American people, in the citizens and in Congress.”
The investigation resulted in several indictments and plea deals with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Ultimately, the 448-page “Mueller Report” was comprehensive but ultimately inconclusive. It found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in a “drastic and systemic” manner, but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated these activities.
Its findings note: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
In February 2021, Mueller participated in a rare interview with MSNBC to recount key moments from his decades-long career.
Asked why he agreed to oversee something as politically daunting as its Russia investigation, he replied: “I found that I enjoyed public service immensely. And I find it hard to turn down a difficult assignment.”
