A threat to Trump
President’s “you're fired” to Comey may be backfiring
Robert Mueller, the former FBI director tapped by the Justice Department on Wednesday to be a special counsel overseeing an investigation into Russia, has spent most of his life in public service.
Mueller, 72, was named to head the FBI one week before the 9/11 terror attacks — and spent the next 12 years at the helm of the agency.
At his confirmation hearings, Mueller vowed that his highest priority would be “to restore the public’s confidence in the FBI.”
Mueller’s arrival at the FBI came after turbulent times that included the agency’s deadly confrontation with Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; the discovery that FBI Agent Robert Hanssen was spying for Russia; and the disclosure of documents withheld from lawyers representing convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. When Mueller stepped down as FBI chief in 2013, he was praised by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., a frequent FBI critic who called the New York City native “a great American.”
Mueller has a new challenge: overseeing the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia.
“Bob Mueller is an outstanding choice because he is apolitical and follows the rule of law and follows the evidence wherever it leads, regardless of political outcomes,” said John Pistole, a former FBI deputy director under Mueller.
Among the highlights of Mueller’s career:
He has often answered the call to public service.
Mueller is an Ivy Leagueeducated lawyer with an elite prep school grounding.
He has had several stints of public service, including three years as an officer in the Marine Corps. He led a rifle platoon during the Vietnam War, earning several medals, including the Purple Heart.
After earning a law degree, he spent a few years in private practice before he began a 12year stint in U.S. attorney offices. He was put in charge of the Department of Justice’s criminal division in 1990.
In 2001, he was tapped to become FBI director.
He headed the FBI longer than anyone else since J. Edgar Hoover.
After President George W. Bush tapped him for the top law enforcement job in 2001, Mueller served through most of 2013 — going over the usual 10-year limit on FBI directors, which was imposed to prevent reigns as long as Hoover’s 50 years.
President Obama said continuity and stability was needed at the FBI when the United States faced security threats and leadership changes at the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The Senate unanimously approved the extension of his term. He was succeeded by James Comey in September 2013.
Mueller was a transformative director.
Mueller assumed leadership of the FBI weeks before suicide hijackers slammed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
During the difficult aftermath, he helped transform the bureau from a purely law enforcement agency to an intelligence-driven organization to confront the looming terror threat. President Bush’s terse, post-9/11 order — “Don’t ever let this happen again” — prompted Mueller’s makeover of the bureau to an agency designed to thwart, rather than respond to, terror threats.
Mueller doesn’t like the spotlight.
Though he directed the highest-profile law enforcement agency during one of the most momentous times in U.S. history, Mueller has eschewed the public spotlight at almost every opportunity. He did not travel with an entourage, rarely sat for media interviews and logged grueling hours, often starting before sunrise and leaving well after dark.
“That’s how he survived … because he kept a low profile,” said Pistole, who leads Indiana’s Anderson University. “He would let his and the bureau’s work speak for itself.”
Mueller investigated the NFL’s handling of Ray Rice’s punishment.
Even in retirement, Mueller found his services in demand.
The National Football League tapped Mueller in 2014 to conduct an independent investigation into claims that league officials received and viewed an elevator video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his fiancée, Janay Palmer, at a casino in Atlantic City in February of that year.
After a four-month investigation, Mueller concluded that no one at the NFL headquarters had received the tape before Rice was suspended despite an Associated Press report that an unnamed woman at the league office in New York City had acknowledged receipt of the tape.