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Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who was appointed in 2017 to lead a federal investigation into allegations of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, has died aged 81.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away” on Friday night, his family said in a statement reported by US media on Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
The Department of Justice veteran is credited with transforming the FBI after becoming its sixth director just days before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Mueller refocused the agency on preventing terrorist plots on US soil. He was asked to continue leading the agency after a ten-year tenure by Democratic president Barack Obama, making him one of the FBI’s longest-serving directors.
Later he was appointed to lead the special counsel investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential race.
US President Donald Trump responded to news of Mueller’s death on Saturday by posting on his Truth Social account: “I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Mueller, who produced a 448-page report into Russian election meddling, said in 2019 that his inquiry did not exonerate Trump from wrongdoing even though it did not allege a criminal conspiracy.
The special counsel said the US required “a process other than the criminal justice system” to accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing, and reiterated that his report did not clear or accuse Trump of obstructing justice.
“A president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office,” Mueller said. “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.”
However, Mueller’s report made clear that the Kremlin worked to get Trump elected by spreading disinformation on social media and hacking Democratic Party emails. The investigation found Trump’s campaign at the time knew it was benefiting from the effort.
Mueller was born in New York but grew up in Philadelphia before graduating from Princeton in 1966. After college, he joined the US Marines and spent three years as an officer, during which time he led a rifle platoon in Vietnam.
Before his appointment to the FBI by former Republican president George W Bush, Mueller spent more than a decade as a criminal prosecutor in California before moving to Boston as assistant United States Attorney in 1982.
He later joined the justice department, eventually taking charge of its criminal division before spending three years as a senior litigator prosecuting homicides in Washington.
A spokesperson for the law firm WilmerHale, where Mueller spent part of his career, hailed their former colleague as “an extraordinary leader and public servant and a person of the greatest integrity”.
“We are deeply proud that he was our partner,” the spokesperson said. “Our thoughts are with Bob’s family and loved ones during this time.”
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