“It is with deep sadness that we share the news that Bob passed away last night,” Mueller’s family said in a statement Saturday, according to CNN, asking for privacy.
Last August, she announced that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021.
“Robert Mueller just died. Well, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people,” the US president wrote in his post.
According to CNN, Robert Mueller has enjoyed a lot of confidence on both sides of the political spectrum for years: when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to head the FBI just days before the 9/11 attacks, he was unanimously approved, and he won full support again when he was asked by President Barack Obama to stay on after his ten-year term. He served in the position for 12 years, becoming the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover.
“His reputation for integrity was a key factor when he was selected to lead the politically sensitive investigation into Donald Trump. By the time the investigation was closed in the middle of Trump’s first term, however, opinions on Robert Mueller — like so much else in American politics — were sharply divided along party lines,” CNN wrote.
According to the station, the investigation of Trump ultimately produced mixed results. Investigators uncovered dozens of secret and often high-level contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, despite both sides denying their existence. The investigation also pointed out that Trump willingly took advantage of Kremlin meddling in the election and that his campaign “expected to benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian activities.”
“However, Robert Mueller did not prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. He also made the controversial decision not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice despite having the necessary evidence; he said he was prohibited from even considering it because Trump was the sitting president at the time,” CNN reported.
According to her, Mueller faced constant – and baseless – accusations of leading a politically biased investigation that Donald Trump called a “witch hunt”, which undermined his previously impeccable reputation as a man respected by both political parties.
