Former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller died Friday at the age of 81, multiple outlets reported.
Mueller led the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 years, from 2001 to 2013, after first being appointed to the director role by former president George W. Bush. He also notably served as a special counsel for the Department of Justice (DOJ) during President Donald Trump’s first term probing Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
After an investigation which lasted nearly two years, Mueller ultimately found no conclusive evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump wrote in a Saturday afternoon Truth Social post. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
TRUMP: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” pic.twitter.com/AbETFv6dI1
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 21, 2026
Mueller’s family disclosed in an Aug. 31, 2025, statement to The New York Times that the former FBI director and special counsel had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for several years.
“Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021. He retired from the practice of law at the end of that year. He taught at his law school alma mater during the fall of both 2021 and 2022, and he retired at the end of 2022. His family asks that his privacy be respected,” the Mueller family said in their statement to the outlet at the time.
In early August 2025, multiple anonymous sources told Real Clear Investigations senior reporter Paul Sperry that Mueller had, at the time, been living in a memory care facility for years. The report emerged less than one month before the former special counsel was set to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee about the FBI investigation into Jeffrey Epstein under his leadership under President Bush. Mueller had been subpoenaed by the committee earlier the same day.
Later the same month — yet before Mueller’s family went public with his diagnosis — a spokesperson for the committee told The Daily Caller the committee decided to withdraw its subpoena of Mueller after it learned “Mr. Mueller has health issues that preclude him from being able to testify.”
Mueller’s 22-month tenure as the special counsel probing what widely became known as “Russiagate” culminated in the release of a a 448-page report.
“In particular, the Office did not find evidence likely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Campaign officials such as Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Carter Page acted as agents of the Russian government — or at its direction, control, or request — during the relevant time period,” the Mueller report concluded.
“The Office evaluated the contacts under several sets of federal laws, including conspiracy laws and statutes governing foreign agents who operate in the United States,” another section of the lengthy report stated. “After considering the available evidence, the Office did not pursue charges under these statutes against any of the individuals discussed in Section IV above — with the exception of [Foreign Agents Registration Act] charges against Paul Manafort and Richard Gates based on their activities on behalf of Ukraine.”
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