Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia-Trump marketing campaign ties, dies | World Information
3 min learnWashingtonMar 22, 2026 12:55 AM IST
Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI director who remodeled the nation’s premier regulation enforcement company right into a terrorism-fighting drive after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults and who later grew to become particular counsel accountable for investigating ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign, has died. He was 81.
“With deep disappointment, we’re sharing the information that Bob handed away” on Friday evening, his household mentioned in an announcement Saturday. “His household asks that their privateness be revered.”
On the FBI, Mueller set about virtually instantly overhauling the bureau’s mission to fulfill the regulation enforcement wants of the twenty first century, starting his 12-year tenure only one week earlier than the Sept. 11 assaults and serving throughout presidents of each political events. He was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush.
The cataclysmic occasion instantaneously switched the bureau’s high precedence from fixing home crime to stopping terrorism, a shift that imposed an virtually impossibly troublesome commonplace on Mueller and the remainder of the federal authorities: stopping 99 out of 100 terrorist plots wasn’t adequate.
Later, he was particular counsel within the Justice Division’s investigation into whether or not the Trump marketing campaign illegally coordinated with Russia to sway the end result of the 2016 presidential race. Mueller was a patrician Princeton graduate and Vietnam veteran who walked away from a profitable midcareer job to remain in public service, and his old-school, buttoned-down fashion made him an anachronism throughout a social media-saturated period.
Trump posted on social media after the announcement of Mueller’s demise: “Robert Mueller simply died. Good, I’m glad he’s lifeless.” The Republican president added, “He can now not damage harmless individuals!”
The FBI didn’t instantly reply to a request looking for remark.
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A second act as an investigator of a sitting president
The second-longest-serving director in FBI historical past, behind solely J. Edgar Hoover, Mueller held the job till 2013 after agreeing to Democratic President Barack Obama’s request to remain on even after his 10-year time period was up.
After a number of years in non-public follow, Mueller was requested by Deputy Lawyer Normal Rod Rosenstein to return to public service as particular counsel within the Trump-Russia inquiry.
Mueller’s stern visage and taciturn demeanor matched the seriousness of the mission, as his crew spent almost two years quietly conducting one of the consequential, but divisive, investigations in Justice Division historical past. He held no information conferences and made no public appearances through the investigation, remaining quiet regardless of assaults from Trump and his supporters and creating an aura of thriller round his work.
All informed, Mueller introduced legal costs in opposition to six of the president’s associates, together with his marketing campaign chairman and first nationwide safety adviser.
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His 448-page report launched in April 2019 recognized substantial contacts between the Trump marketing campaign and Russia however didn’t allege a legal conspiracy. Mueller laid out damaging particulars about Trump’s efforts to grab management of the investigation, and even shut it down, although he declined to resolve whether or not Trump had damaged the regulation, partly due to division coverage barring the indictment of a sitting president.


