The former Marine overhauled the FBI after the 9/11 attacks, and supporters say he helped save it. Then he confronted Trump in the investigation of a lifetime.
Robert Mueller dies at age 81 after a distinguished life of public service
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has died at the age of 81 after a distinguished career in law enforcement and military service.
WASHINGTON – Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was considered a hero by many, including the Marines he commanded in combat in Vietnam and the FBI agents who worked for him after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
And ultimately, Mr. Mueller became a career-defining hero for those involved in the Justice Department’s political crimes investigation into associates of then-President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russian interference in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power.
Mueller made many enemies along the way, especially Trump and his supporters, as he refused to say the then-president broke any laws during Russia’s election interference.
Here are five things you need to know about Mueller, who died on March 21 at the age of 81 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
From the Ivy League to the jungles of Vietnam
Before leading the FBI, Mr. Mueller served as a Marine officer in Vietnam, where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for bravery.
Unlike many enlistees, Mr. Mueller graduated from Ivy League Princeton University in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and later earned a master’s degree in international relations from New York University. Garrett Graff, author of “The Threat Matrix: Inside Robert Mueller’s FBI and the War on Global Terror,” said he spent a year recovering from a knee injury so he could serve in some of the bloodiest combat zones during the war..”
In April 1969, after more than 33,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, Mueller once again led his troops into combat, engaging the enemy in close quarters combat.
“The impending gunfire was so intense,” Graf wrote in a 2018 WIRED article. “The stress of the moment was all-consuming, and the adrenaline was so intense that Mueller did not immediately realize when he was shot.”
“During the fight, he looked down and noticed an AK-47 bullet had passed cleanly through his thigh,” Graf wrote. “Müller kept fighting.”
“I consider myself very lucky to have gotten out of Vietnam,” Mueller said in a speech years later. “There were a lot of people who didn’t. And maybe because I survived Vietnam, I always felt like I had to contribute.”
Leads the FBI, which is on the verge of extinction after 9/11.
After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. Mueller began his career as a federal prosecutor, handling cases including murder, organized crime, terrorism and public corruption. President George W. Bush nominated Mueller, then described as a conservative Republican, to head the FBI on July 5, 2001.
He was sworn into office on September 4, 2001, just one week after al-Qaeda suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington killed about 3,000 people in New York and the Pentagon.
The FBI faced intense criticism in Congress and elsewhere for failing to detect or stop the plot. In response, Mr. Mueller is widely credited with leading sweeping reforms that saved the bureau from being stripped of many of its key functions.
He did this by moving the organization from a traditional crime-fighting agency to a counter-terrorism and intelligence-driven operation.
“Some in Congress wanted to create a domestic intelligence agency separate from the FBI, modeled after Britain’s MI5, and just want it to function as a domestic law enforcement agency with no intelligence or national security responsibilities,” Javed Ali, a former FBI official, told USA TODAY on March 21.
Ali said his position as the FBI’s senior counterterrorism analyst from 2007 to 2010 was “a direct result of the changes that Mueller brought to the FBI.”
threatens to quit over secret domestic surveillance program
Mr. Mueller’s surveillance standoff with the Bush administration over secret surveillance programs nearly led to his resignation, but his reputation for independence was highlighted.
On March 10, 2004, while Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft was in a Washington, D.C., hospital for gallbladder surgery, then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey received a call that two White House staffers were about to visit an unconscious Ashcroft to update him on a controversial warrantless wiretapping program that the Justice Department believed was unconstitutional.
When Mr. Ashcroft refused to sign, and the White House renewed the program anyway, Mr. Mueller and Mr. Comey both threatened to resign. After meeting with both parties at the White House, Mr. Bush supported changes to the program to meet privacy concerns.
Clashes with Trump over Trump-Russia investigation
Long after retiring from government service, Mueller was recalled to investigate whether Russia, perhaps with the help of then-candidate Trump and his political team, interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Mueller served as special counsel in the investigation that began in May 2017, assembling a high-powered team of prosecutors and investigators and writing an extensive report detailing the findings of the investigation, which angered President Trump.
By June 2017, Mr. Mueller’s team was personally investigating Mr. Trump for obstruction of justice in connection with the case. washington post It was reported at the time. Four months later, Mueller filed charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and campaign co-chairman Rick Gates, including charges of conspiracy against the United States.
The Mueller report ultimately revealed that Russia had launched “multiple coordinated efforts” to interfere with the election and detailed numerous embarrassing details about the conduct of Mr. Trump and his allies.
Thirty-four people were indicted in the investigation, including six former Trump advisers, 26 Russians, a California man and a London-based lawyer. Seven people, including five of President Trump’s six former advisers, have pleaded guilty.
Mueller also said that although the Justice Department’s Office of the General Counsel prohibits prosecuting a sitting president, “If I had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, I would have said so.”
Mr. Mueller said, adding that the investigation was effectively hampered by a longstanding Justice Department policy barring criminal prosecution of sitting presidents.
Damaging testimony surrounding the Mueller report
In a career-defining moment, Mr. Mueller was brought before Congress to testify about his report and whether it exonerated Mr. Trump.
In dramatic but often interrupted testimony on July 24, 2019, Mueller refused to say that was the case and confirmed his view that the president could be indicted after leaving office.
Mr. Mueller, consistent with his decades as a stalwart lawmaker, responded with many one-word answers. This frustrated Republicans and Democrats alike. But he denied claims that his investigation was a “witch hunt” or that it completely exonerated the president, as Trump and his Republican allies have claimed.
Critics were relentless, calling Mueller’s testimony “excruciatingly awkward,” “confused,” “difficult” and a “stammering, stuttering mess.”
But, former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote, “History will show that he had one big goal and accomplished it with flying colors.”
“Mr. Mueller’s meek and thorough response to his high-stakes investigation was an objective lesson in professionalism,” Mariotti wrote in Politico.
President Trump has claimed that Mueller’s investigation into his first White House campaign and ties to Moscow is a fabrication. A federal prosecutor in South Florida, appointed by President Trump, is currently leading the investigation into the matter, and has subpoenaed Comey and others as part of that investigation.
