Robert S. Mueller III, the former FBI director who led the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and died Friday at 81, drew a public celebration Saturday from the man whose presidency he was appointed to examine.
“Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 1:26 p.m. EDT. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
The post, signed “President DONALD J. TRUMP,” came minutes after news outlets reported Mueller’s death. His family confirmed his passing in a statement but did not specify a location or cause. The New York Times reported last year that Mueller had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Mueller, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who led the FBI for 12 years, was appointed special counsel on May 17, 2017 — eight days after Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey, who was investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Trump told Russian officials the day after Comey’s firing that he had faced “great pressure because of Russia” and that the dismissal had relieved it.
Upon learning of Mueller’s appointment, Trump told aides: “Oh, my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency.”
Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election lasted 22 months and produced 37 indictments, seven guilty pleas or convictions, and charges against 34 people and three companies. Key indictments included Trump associates like Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone, alongside Russian nationals and entities involved in hacking and disinformation campaigns.
Mueller’s 448-page report, released in April 2019, concluded that Russia interfered in the election in “sweeping and systematic fashion” and that the Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
“The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy,” said Mueller, in a statement released when the investigation was completed. “And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the President.”
The investigation found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Moscow, but it outlined 10 instances where Trump tried to interfere with the probe.
The second volume of the report detailed 10 episodes relating to obstruction of justice in which Trump sought to impede the investigation and explicitly stated: “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Trump spent the ensuing years attacking Mueller and his work, repeatedly calling the investigation a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” The president issued pardons to Flynn, Manafort, and Stone in the final months of his first term.
Mueller, a registered Republican, rarely responded to Trump’s attacks.
In July 2020, he broke his silence to write in The Washington Post that the investigation “was not a witch hunt” and that the prosecutors who conducted it “acted with the highest integrity.”
Born in Manhattan on Aug. 7, 1944, Mueller grew up outside Philadelphia and graduated from Princeton University. He joined the Marine Corps in 1968, serving as a rifle platoon leader in Vietnam, where he received the Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart after being shot in the thigh.
He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1973 and spent much of his career as a federal prosecutor, serving as U.S. attorney in Boston and San Francisco and heading the Justice Department’s criminal division.
Appointed FBI director by President George W. Bush, Mueller took office one week before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He spent the next 12 years transforming the bureau from a domestic law enforcement agency into a counterterrorism and intelligence organization, a tenure exceeded only by J. Edgar Hoover’s.
In 2004, Mueller and Comey, then deputy attorney general, threatened to resign when White House officials sought to reauthorize a domestic eavesdropping program the Justice Department had deemed unconstitutional. The two men rushed to a Washington hospital where Attorney General John Ashcroft was recovering from surgery and prevented top Bush aides from persuading him to reauthorize the program. Bush ultimately backed down.
Mueller left the FBI in 2013 and returned to the law firm WilmerHale. He was called back to public service in 2017 when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him special counsel.
In his 2019 congressional testimony, Mueller said he believed the investigation had been thorough and fair.
“It is not a witch hunt,” he told lawmakers.
Trump’s post celebrating Mueller’s death drew no immediate public response from congressional leaders or former officials who worked with Mueller. White House press officials did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Mueller is survived by his wife, Ann, and two daughters. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.