The former director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Robert Mueller, who led the investigation into relations between Russia and the election team of Donald Trump, died on Friday at the age of 81. His family announced it on Saturday, reports TASR according to the DPA and AP agencies.
- Robert Mueller died at the age of eighty-one, the family did not disclose the cause.
- Mueller led the FBI for twelve years and refocused it on the fight against terrorism.
- He investigated possible Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
- He discovered the Trump team’s contacts with Russia, but did not prove a secret conspiracy to influence the election.
- Donald Trump considered the investigation a witch hunt and publicly welcomed Mueller’s death.
In a statement, the family asked for privacy. She did not disclose the place or cause of death. Last year there were reports that Mueller had Parkinson’s disease. Mueller took over the leadership of the FBI shortly before the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, after which he transformed his institution focused on investigating crime into an organization that also fights terrorism. He was the head of the FBI for 12 years, making him the second-longest-serving director of the agency in its history.
After working in the private sector, he returned to public service as a special investigator for the Department of Justice. In 2017-19, he led the investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US election in favor of Trumpwho reacted angrily to this investigation.
In his 448-page report, Mueller identified contacts between the Trump campaign team and Russia, but did not make allegations that they colluded to influence the election. On the other hand, he refused to rule out that Trump committed obstruction of justice, but did not directly accuse him of violating the lawwhile referring to the principles of the Ministry of Justice preventing the indictment of a sitting president.
Trump called the report his purge and the investigation a witch hunt. On Saturday after news of Mueller’s death on his social network wrote that he was “glad to be dead”. “He can no longer harm innocent people,” added the head of the White House.
