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Robert Mueller, the steadfast former FBI director who meticulously chronicled Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its interactions with Donald Trump’s campaign, has passed away at the age of 81, as reported by several news outlets.
His passing was confirmed by MS NOW and a New York Times journalist through a statement from the Mueller family. The cause of death was not disclosed, although Mueller, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran and key figure in the FBI following the September 11, 2001, attacks, had been reported by the New York Times last year to be battling Parkinson’s disease.
Mueller retired in 2013 after serving 12 years as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, his dedication to public service brought him back in 2017, when a senior Justice Department official appointed him as a special counsel. This appointment came in the wake of President Trump’s dismissal of then-FBI chief James Comey, thrusting Mueller into the center of the investigation into Russian election interference.
Over the course of 22 months, Mueller’s investigation resulted in indictments against 34 individuals, including key Trump associates, Russian intelligence officers, and three Russian companies. His work led to numerous guilty pleas and convictions. Nonetheless, he refrained from criminally indicting President Trump, which left many Democrats deeply disappointed.
Mueller conducted a 22-month investigation that produced indictments against 34 people, including several Trump associates as well as Russian intelligence officers and three Russian companies, and a series of guilty pleas and convictions. Mueller ultimately stopped short of a criminal indictment of the Republican president, bitterly disappointing many Democrats.
Trump on Saturday celebrated Mueller’s passing. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
During his career as a prosecutor and FBI chief, Mueller displayed a patrician manner and sometimes wooden personality — just about the opposite of the bombastic Trump. He was known by some as “Bobby Three Sticks” because of his full name — Robert Mueller III — a fanciful moniker that belied his formal bearing and sober approach to law enforcement.
His Russia inquiry, detailed in a 448-page 2019 report, laid bare what Mueller and US intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the US, denigrate 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, the Kremlin’s preferred candidate. Russia denied election interference.
“First, our investigation found that the Russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” Mueller said during a 2019 congressional testimony.
“Second, the investigation … focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the (Trump) campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy. It was not,” Mueller added.
“The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed.”
Mueller, a longtime Republican, faced unremitting attacks by Trump and his allies on his integrity as they tried to discredit the investigation and the special counsel himself. Trump used social media, speeches and comments to news media to assail Mueller, accusing him of running a politically-motivated “rigged witch hunt”.
“It’s all a big hoax,” Trump said in 2019.
“Absolutely, it was not a hoax,” Mueller told the congressional hearing, noting the numerous charges arising from the probe.
Appointed by Republican President George W Bush to head the FBI, Mueller took over as its director one week before the September 11 attacks on the US by al-Qaeda militants using hijacked planes that killed about 3000 people. Democratic President Barack Obama later extended Mueller’s appointment. By the time Mueller left the position, his tenure was exceeded only by J Edgar Hoover’s 48-year stint.
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