BREAKING: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller Passes Away At 81

Robert Mueller, who served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 years and later as special counsel in the debunked Russian collusion probe following the 2016 presidential election, has died. He was 81-years-old

“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away,” a spokesperson for Mueller announced in a statement. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”

No place of death was disclosed, and no cause has been made public as of this report.

President Donald Trump reacted to the news in a social media post. “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

Mueller had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021. “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,” the family announced in a statement last August.

Breaking: Robert Mueller, the FBI director and special counsel who investigated Russia-Trump campaign ties, dies at 81 Per AP pic.twitter.com/JI27dWzFS9

— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) March 21, 2026

Born August 7, 1944, Mueller served as a Marine officer in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, earning a Bronze Star with Valor device and a Purple Heart. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1973.

Mueller’s early legal career included positions as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of California and the District of Massachusetts. He later became assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice, where he oversaw major cases involving Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, New York mafia figure John Gotti, and the prosecution related to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

From 1998 to 2001 he served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

In 2001 President George W. Bush nominated Mueller to lead the FBI. He was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on September 4, 2001, one week before the September 11 attacks. During his tenure, which lasted until September 2013 — the second-longest in FBI history — he directed a significant reorganization of the bureau to prioritize counterterrorism and intelligence gathering. Congress granted a two-year extension of his term in 2011.

In May 2017 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller special counsel to examine Russian government interference in the 2016 election and any potential coordination with the Trump campaign. The report yielded several indictments of Russian nationals and low level GOP operatives for process crimes, but found no evidence of collusion.

The report concluded that the investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Mueller stepped down as special counsel on May 29, 2019.

After leaving government service, Mueller joined the law firm WilmerHale as a partner and handled select matters, including acting as a special master in the National Football League’s Ray Rice domestic violence case and in Volkswagen’s emissions scandal litigation. He also taught as a consulting professor at Stanford University and later instructed courses at the University of Virginia School of Law in the fall semesters of 2021 and 2022 before retiring from teaching at the end of 2022.