Robert Swan Mueller III is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2001 to 2013.
52 Facts About Robert Mueller
2.
Robert Mueller subsequently attended the University of Virginia School of Law.
3.
Robert Mueller was an assistant United States attorney, a United States attorney, United States assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, a homicide prosecutor in Washington, DC, acting United States deputy attorney general, partner at DC law firm WilmerHale and director of the FBI.
4.
On May 17,2017, Robert Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and related matters.
5.
Robert Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22,2019.
6.
Robert Mueller has four younger sisters: Susan, Sandra, Joan, and Patricia.
7.
Robert Mueller's father was an executive with DuPont who had served as a Navy officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters during World War II.
8.
Robert Mueller's father majored in psychology at Princeton University and played varsity lacrosse.
9.
Robert Mueller grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, where he attended Princeton Country Day School.
10.
Robert Mueller earned a Master of Arts in international relations from New York University in 1967.
11.
Robert Mueller has cited the combat death of his Princeton lacrosse teammate David Spencer Hackett in the Vietnam War as an influence on his decision to pursue military service.
12.
Robert Mueller had originally considered making the Marines his career, but he explained later that he found non-combat life in the corps to be unexciting.
13.
Robert Mueller then served for 12 years in United States Attorney offices.
14.
Robert Mueller first worked in the office of the US Attorney for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he rose to be chief of the criminal division, and in 1982, he moved to Boston to work in the office of the US Attorney for Massachusetts as an Assistant United States Attorney, where he investigated and prosecuted major financial fraud, terrorism and public corruption cases, as well as narcotics conspiracies and international money launderers.
15.
In 1993, Robert Mueller became a partner at Boston's Hale and Dorr, specializing in white-collar crime litigation.
16.
Robert Mueller returned to public service in 1995 as senior litigator in the homicide section of the District of Columbia United States Attorney's Office.
17.
In 1998, Robert Mueller was named US Attorney for the Northern District of California and held that position until 2001.
18.
Robert Mueller had previously served as acting deputy attorney general of the United States Department of Justice for several months before officially becoming the FBI director on September 4,2001, one week before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
19.
On February 11,2003, one month before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Robert Mueller gave testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
20.
Robert Mueller was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 2004.
21.
At a dinner, Robert Mueller defended an attorney who had been attacked for his role in defending Kuwaiti detainees.
22.
When Bush confronted Robert Mueller to ask him to round up more terrorists in the US, Robert Mueller responded, saying, "If they [suspects] don't commit a crime, it would be difficult to identify and isolate" them.
23.
In May 2011, President Barack Obama asked Robert Mueller to continue at the helm of the FBI for two additional years beyond his normal 10-year term, which would have expired on September 4,2011.
24.
On September 4,2013, Robert Mueller was replaced by James Comey.
25.
In June 2013, Robert Mueller defended NSA surveillance programs in testimony before a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
26.
On October 19,2016, Mueller began an external review of "security, personnel, and management processes and practices" at government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton after Harold T Martin III was indicted for massive data theft from the National Security Agency.
27.
Robert Mueller received the 2016 Thayer Award for public service from the United States Military Academy.
28.
On May 16,2017, Robert Mueller met with President Trump as a courtesy to provide perspectives on the FBI and input on considerations for hiring a new FBI Director.
29.
President Trump broached resuming the position in their meeting; however, Robert Mueller was ineligible to return as FBI Director due to statutory term limits, and Robert Mueller lacked interest in resuming the position.
30.
The next day, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice.
31.
The spokesperson for the special counsel, Peter Carr, told NBC News that Robert Mueller has taken an active role in managing the inquiry.
32.
On June 14,2017, The Washington Post reported that Robert Mueller's office is investigating Trump personally for possible obstruction of justice, in reference to the Russian probe.
33.
Robert Mueller said it was "the obligation of some executive-branch officials to refuse to carry out some of these orders that, again, are inconsistent with what this country is all about".
34.
On October 30,2017, Robert Mueller filed charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and campaign co-chairman Rick Gates.
35.
On December 1,2017, Robert Mueller reached a plea agreement with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to giving false testimony to the FBI about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
36.
On February 16,2018, Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian individuals and 3 Russian companies for attempting to trick Americans into consuming Russian propaganda that targeted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and later President-elect Donald Trump.
37.
On February 20,2018, Robert Mueller charged attorney Alex van der Zwaan with making false statements in the Russia probe.
38.
Robert Mueller was investigating the Trump campaign's possible ties to Turkey, Qatar, Israel, and China.
39.
On March 22,2019, Robert Mueller concluded his investigation and submitted the special counsel's final report to Attorney General William Barr.
40.
On May 29,2019, Robert Mueller announced that he was retiring as special counsel and that the office would be shut down, and he spoke publicly about the report for the first time.
41.
Robert Mueller was initially scheduled to publicly testify before two House committees on July 17,2019, with two hours for lawmakers to ask questions, but the hearing was postponed to July 24 with a third hour added for questions.
42.
On July 24,2019, Robert Mueller attended both congressional committee hearings and was questioned by members of Congress.
43.
Robert Mueller's testimony followed the guidelines he had stated would be appropriate regarding his report.
44.
Robert Mueller said he was "not familiar" with Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the Steele dossier.
45.
Robert Mueller rejected claims that his investigation was a "witch hunt" or that it totally exonerated the President.
46.
Robert Mueller declined to answer questions outside of the scope of his investigation, but reiterated his concern about foreign interference with American elections.
47.
Robert Mueller noted that it continues, that he expects it to expand to include other foreign governments as well as the Russians, and that he considers it a great threat to the United States.
48.
Subsequently, Robert Mueller's words were distorted and misinterpreted to both defend and condemn the President.
49.
The University of Virginia Law School announced in June 2021 that in the coming fall Robert Mueller would participate in a six-session course called "The Robert Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel," along with three of his colleagues from the investigation.
50.
Robert Mueller met his future wife, Ann Cabell Standish, at a high school party when they were 17.
51.
Robert Mueller was diagnosed in the fall of 2000, postponing being sworn in as FBI director until he received a good prognosis from his physician.
52.
Robert Mueller attended the weddings of two of Barr's daughters, and their wives attend Bible study together.