Private practice and Department of Justice and
William Barr in 1991 After receiving his
Juris Doctor in 1973 from the
University of Virginia School of Law, Mueller worked as a litigator at the firm
Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro in San Francisco until 1976. He then served for 12 years in
U.S. Attorney offices. He first worked in the office of the
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, In 1990, Mueller became the
U.S. Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division. In 1991, Mueller publicly stated that the government had been investigating the
Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) since 1986, an unusually visible disclosure for an ongoing case. That same year, he was elected a fellow of the
American College of Trial Lawyers.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Bush administration President
George W. Bush nominated Mueller for the position of FBI director on July 5, 2001. He and two other candidates, Washington lawyer
George J. Terwilliger III and Chicago prosecutor and white-collar crime defense lawyer
Dan Webb, were considered for the role, but Mueller, described at the time as a
conservative Republican, was widely viewed as the front-runner. Terwilliger and Webb both withdrew from consideration in mid-June, and confirmation hearings for Mueller before the
Senate Judiciary Committee were scheduled for July 30, only three days before his
prostate cancer surgery. The Senate unanimously confirmed Mueller as FBI director on August 2, 2001, voting 98–0. He had previously served as acting deputy attorney general of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for several months before officially assuming the FBI directorship on September 4, 2001, one week before the
September 11 attacks. That same month, FBI Special Agent
Coleen Rowley wrote an open letter to Mueller warning that "the bureau will [not] be able to stem the flood of terrorism that will likely head our way in the wake of an attack on Iraq" and encouraged Mueller to "share [her concerns] with the President and Attorney General." Deputy attorney general
James Comey received a call from Ashcroft's wife informing him that White House Chief of Staff
Andrew Card and White House Counsel
Alberto Gonzales were on their way to Ashcroft's bedside to seek his approval for renewing a warrantless
wiretapping program under the
Terrorist Surveillance Program, which the Department of Justice had ruled unconstitutional. On March 12, 2004, after private meetings with Mueller and Comey at the White House, the president agreed to modify the program to address the concerns raised by Mueller, Ashcroft, and Comey. As director, Mueller barred FBI personnel from participating in
enhanced interrogations conducted by the
CIA. At a dinner, he defended attorney,
Thomas Wilner, who had been criticized for representing Kuwaiti detainees, standing and raising a glass to say, "I toast Tom Wilner. He's doing what an American should." The White House pushed for more aggressive methods of pursuing and interrogating terrorism suspects. When Bush pressed Mueller to round up more suspects inside the United States, Mueller replied, "If they [suspects] don't commit a crime, it would be difficult to identify and isolate them." Vice President
Dick Cheney objected, saying, "That's just not good enough. We're hearing this too much from the FBI." The Senate approved this request 100–0 on July 27, 2011. On September 4, 2013, Mueller was succeeded by James Comey. In June 2013, Mueller defended
NSA surveillance programs in testimony before a
House Judiciary Committee hearing. He said that surveillance programs could have "derailed" the September 11 attacks. Congressman
John Conyers disagreed, saying, "I am not persuaded that that makes it OK to collect every call." He said, "We are taking all necessary steps to hold
Edward Snowden responsible for these
disclosures." On June 19, 2017, in the case of
Arar v. Ashcroft, Mueller, along with Ashcroft, former
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James W. Ziglar, and others, was shielded from civil liability by the
U.S. Supreme Court for post-
9/11 detention of Muslims under policies implemented at the time.
Return to private sector , with (from left) President Obama, National Security Advisor
Thomas E. Donilon, Attorney General
Eric Holder, Director of CIA
John O. Brennan, and
Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism After leaving the FBI in 2013, Mueller served a one‑year term as consulting professor and the Arthur and Frank Payne distinguished lecturer at
Stanford University, where he focused on issues related to
computer security. In addition to his speaking and teaching roles, Mueller joined the law firm
WilmerHale as a partner in its Washington office in 2014. Among other responsibilities at the firm, he oversaw the independent investigation into the
NFL's conduct surrounding the
video that appeared to show NFL player
Ray Rice assaulting his fiancée. In January 2016, he was appointed as Settlement Master in U.S. consumer litigation over the
Volkswagen emissions scandal; as of May 11, 2017, the scandal had resulted in $11.2 billion in customer settlements. 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. On April 6, 2017, he was appointed as special master for the disbursement of $850 million and $125 million for automakers and consumers, respectively, affected by
rupture-prone Takata airbags. Mueller received the 2016
Sylvanus Thayer Award for public service from the
U.S. Military Academy. In June 2017, he received the Baker Award for intelligence and national security contributions from the nonprofit
Intelligence and National Security Alliance. In October 2019, it was announced that Mueller, along with
James L. Quarles and
Aaron Zebley, would return to WilmerHale to resume private practice. On July 11, 2020, Mueller wrote an op-ed in
The Washington Post stating that
Roger Stone "remains a convicted felon, and rightly so" after the U.S. President granted Stone clemency, and he defended his office's work and the integrity of the investigation.
Special Counsel for the DoJ (2017–2019) On May 16, 2017, Mueller met with President Donald Trump as a courtesy to provide perspectives on the FBI and input on considerations for hiring a new FBI director. This meeting was initially widely reported as an interview to serve again as FBI director. Trump raised the possibility of Mueller resuming the position; however, Mueller was ineligible to return due to statutory term limits, and he had no interest in resuming the role. Mueller's appointment received immediate bipartisan support in Congress.
Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives and a prominent conservative political commentator, stated via
Twitter that Mueller was "a superb choice to be special counsel" and his reputation was "impeccable for honesty and integrity". Senator
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, "Former Director Mueller is exactly the right kind of individual for this job. I now have significantly greater confidence that the investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead." Senator
Rob Portman (R-OH) said that Mueller was "well qualified to oversee this probe". Upon his appointment as special counsel, Mueller and two colleagues—former FBI agent
Aaron Zebley and former assistant special prosecutor on the
Watergate Special Prosecution Force
James L. Quarles III—resigned from
WilmerHale. On May 23, 2017, Department of Justice ethics officials announced that Mueller had been declared ethically able to serve as special counsel. Peter Carr, spokesperson for the special counsel's office, told
NBC News had taken an active role in managing the inquiry. In an interview with the
Associated Press, Rosenstein said he would recuse himself from supervising Mueller if he became a subject of the investigation due to his role in the dismissal of James Comey. On June 14, 2017,
The Washington Post reported that Mueller's office was also investigating Trump personally for possible
obstruction of justice in connection with the Russia probe. The report was questioned by Trump's attorney
Jay Sekulow, who said on June 18 on
NBC's
Meet the Press, "The President is not and has not been under investigation for obstruction, period." Due to the central role of the
Trump family in the campaign, the transition, and the White House, the President's son-in-law,
Jared Kushner, was also reportedly under scrutiny by Mueller. Also in June, Trump allegedly ordered the firing of Mueller but backed down when then‑White House Counsel
Don McGahn threatened to resign. During a discussion about national security at the
Aspen security conference on July 21, 2017, former
CIA director John Brennan reaffirmed his support for Mueller and called on members of Congress to resist if Trump attempted to fire him. Brennan 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." After
Peter Strzok, an investigator for Mueller, was removed from the inquiry for alleged partiality, Senator
Mark Warner, the Ranking Member of the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, warned in a December 20, 2017, floor speech a potential constitutional crisis if the President fired Mueller. On June 22, 2018, Warner hosted a fundraising event for approximately 100 guests and was quoted as saying, "If you get me one more glass of wine, I'll tell you stuff only Bob Mueller and I know. If you think you've seen wild stuff so far, buckle up. It's going to be a wild couple of months." , 2018 On October 30, 2017, Mueller filed charges against former Trump campaign chairman
Paul Manafort and campaign co-chairman
Rick Gates. The 12 charges included conspiracy to launder money, violations of the 1938
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for acting as unregistered agents of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, and
conspiracy against the United States. On December 1, 2017, 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. As part of Flynn's negotiations, his son, Michael G. Flynn, was not expected to be charged, and Flynn was prepared to testify that high‑level officials on Trump's team directed him to make contact with Russian representatives. On February 16, 2018, Mueller indicted 13 Russian individuals and 3 Russian companies for attempting to deceive Americans into consuming Russian propaganda that targeted Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton, and later President-elect
Donald Trump. On February 20, 2018, Mueller charged attorney
Alex van der Zwaan with making false statements in the Russia probe. On May 20, 2018, Trump criticized Mueller, tweeting that "the World's most expensive Witch Hunt has found nothing on Russia & me so now they are looking at the rest of the World!" Mueller also began investigating the August 2016 meeting between
Donald Trump Jr. and an emissary for the crown princes of
Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates. The emissary offered help to the Trump presidential campaign. On December 18, 2018,
The Washington Post reported on a Senate‑commissioned study concluding that Russian disinformation teams had targeted Mueller. On March 22, 2019, Mueller concluded his investigation and submitted the special counsel's final report to Attorney General
William Barr. A senior Department of Justice official said that the report did not recommend any new indictments. On March 24, Attorney General Barr submitted a summary of findings to the
U.S. Congress, stating, "The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election." Mueller's report reportedly did not take a position on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice; Barr quoted Mueller as saying, "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." On April 18, 2019, the Department of Justice released
Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, the special counsel's final report and its conclusions. On May 29, 2019, 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. Saying, "The report is my testimony", he indicated that he would have nothing to add beyond what was already written. On the subject of obstruction of justice, he said, "under long-standing Department [of Justice] policy, a president cannot be charged with a crime while he is in office." He repeated his official conclusion that the report neither accused nor exonerated the President, while adding that any potential wrongdoing by a president must be addressed by a "process other than the criminal justice system." Mueller also reaffirmed the involvement of Russian operatives in the
2016 Democratic National Committee email leak and their parallel efforts to influence American public opinion through social media. Mueller was initially scheduled to testify publicly before two House committees on July 17, 2019, with two hours allotted for questioning, but the hearing was postponed to July 24 and expanded to include a third hour. His testimony was expected to help inform the public and assist Democratic leadership in determining whether to pursue impeachment. Representative
Jamie Raskin of Maryland said he would use visual aids, such as posters, to help explain the implications of the Mueller report. Republicans planned to question Mueller about the origins of the investigation. On July 24, 2019, Mueller appeared before both congressional committees and was questioned by members of Congress. His testimony adhered to the guidelines he had previously stated would govern his public comments. He rejected claims that his investigation was a "witch hunt" or that it totally exonerated the President. He declined to answer questions outside the scope of his investigation but reiterated his concern about foreign interference in American elections. He noted that such interference was ongoing, that he expected it to expand to include other foreign governments in addition to Russia, and that he considered it a significant threat to the United States. According to the
Nielsen Company, total viewership for the hearings was just under 13 million, significantly lower than other high‑profile hearings involving the Trump administration, such as those for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (20.4 million), former FBI director James Comey (19.5 million), and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen (15.8 million). The comparatively low ratings were attributed in part to the hearing taking place in July, a common vacation period, and months after the release of the Mueller report. Fox News Channel had the highest viewership, with 3.03 million viewers. In the aftermath, Mueller's remarks were variously distorted and misinterpreted to both defend and criticize the President. Some observers described his testimony as unusually hesitant or confusing. In late September 2019, it was reported that Trump may have lied to Mueller about his knowledge of his campaign's contacts with
WikiLeaks, based on
grand jury redactions in the Mueller report.
Retirement In June 2021, the
University of Virginia School of Law announced that Mueller would participate in a six‑session course titled "The Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel", to be offered that fall. He taught the course alongside three colleagues from the special counsel investigation. Mueller wrote the introduction to the book
Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation, which the publisher
Simon & Schuster announced in July 2024 would be released in September. Its authors are Aaron Zebley, James Quarles, and Andrew Goldstein, all of whom Mueller had recruited for the special counsel investigation. == Personal life ==