WAHINGTON, US, Mar 22 — Robert Mueller, the former special counsel whose investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election defined much of Donald Trump’s first term in office, has died aged 81.
The cause of his death was not immediately clear. CBS News, the BBC US partner, confirmed his death.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away” on Friday night, his family told the AP in a statement. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
Mueller previously led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013, taking the office just days before the 11 September 2001 terror attacks. He is credited with reshaping it into a modern counterterrorism agency.
Mueller is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann Cabell Standish, their two daughters, and three grandchildren.
Mueller’s special counsel inquiry put Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign under a microscope, drawing harsh criticism from the US president.
The president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: “I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Mueller’s former employers and colleagues praised him as a longtime public servant. Both of the presidents he served under as FBI director – George W Bush and Barack Obama – paid tribute.
Bush, who appointed Mueller to lead the FBI, said he was “deeply saddened” by his death.
“In 2001, only one week into the job as the sixth director of the FBI, Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11,” he said. “He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on US soil.”
Obama called him “one of the finest directors in the history of the FBI” and commended his “relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values”.
Former FBI director James Comey, who succeeded Mueller at the agency and whose abrupt firing by Trump led to the Mueller investigation said: “A great American died today, one I was lucky enough to learn from and stand beside.”
A spokesman for Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, called him an “extraordinary leader and public servant and a person of the greatest integrity” in a statement.
Mueller was born in 1944. After studying politics at Princeton University, he joined the Marines and deployed to Vietnam in 1968.
