Robert Mueller, Rest in Peace

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director and Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller, III, who oversaw the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 that helped elect Donald Trump, died Friday at the age of 81 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Born in 1944 in New York, New York, he earned Bachelor of Arts in politics from Princeton University in 1966 and a Master of Arts in international relations from New York University three years later. Military Service in Combat: Mueller joined the United States Marines in 1968, serving in the Vietnamese War, where he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. After three years in the military service, he added a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1973. Mueller alternated as an attorney in both public and private practice over the course of his career. Public Service as an Attorney Starting in 1976, he worked in U.S. Attorney offices and in 1982 was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts by President Ronald Regan, the first of a series of appointments by both Republican and Democratic Presidents. In President George H.W. Bush’s Administration, Mueller was Assistant to the Attorney General, then Acting Deputy Attorney General and then Assistant Attorney General, in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. He successfully prosecuted terrorists, organized crime leaders and former Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manuel Noriega. Mueller returned to public service in 1995 in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia and then was appointed three years later the U.S. Attorney for Northern California. F.B.I. Director: Because of his record as a conservative Republican, President George W. Bush appointed him FBI Director, to which he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Mueller served during the War on Terrorism for a ten-year term. President Barack Obama asked the Senate, which concurred unanimously, to reappoint Mueller for an additional two years -- the only person to serve more than one term as the head of the federal police force since 1972. His public service earned him the Thayer Award, the United States Military Academy’s highest award, in 2016. Special Counsel: Coming out of private practice once again in 2017, Mueller was appointed Special Counsel by the Deputy Attorney General in Donald Trump's Administration to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and particularly to prosecute any links or coordination between the Russians and the Trump Campaign. The appointment received bipartisan praise because of Mueller’s integrity, patriotism, lifetime of public service and conservative credentials. Mueller successfully prosecuted several Americans, including Trump’s campaign manager and other political operatives, as well as Russians, whom the Trump Administration sanctioned as a result. The Republican Special Counsel found that Russia had engaged in sweeping and systematic interference in American politics since 2014 and which was still ongoing, including in the 2016 presidential primaries to back Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries and Trump in the Republican primaries and general election. Mueller found that Trump had welcomed Russian interference, that his campaign manager had shared private polling with a Russian agent, and that Trump's campaign had numerous contacts with the Russians that no one reported to the FBI, and that the Trump campaign had at times expressed a willingness to accept information from the Russians harmful to the Democrats. He also found that the Trump campaign had coordinated its messaging with the release by a third party, Wikileaks, from which it was given advanced notice, that had been stolen by the Russians and provided to Wikileaks, which published the stolen information. Mueller’s findings validated the unanimous determinations by all seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the election, including to help Trump, and which were validated by the Republican-majority Senate Intelligence Committee, which unanimously issued a report concurring with Mueller’s findings. The Special Counsel determined that Trump and other targets of the investigation had illegally obstructed his probe, but because of a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting an incumbent president, Mueller urged the House of Representatives to impeach Trump for obstruction of justice. Trump and his supporters have misrepresented Mueller's findings ever since, claiming that the lack of a prosecution “exonerated” Trump, which was the opposite of what the Special Counsel said in his report, and that Mueller had found there was no “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russians, but as the Special Counsel was charged only with prosecuting crimes and no there was no federal criminal law called “collusion,” the Trumpist argument misleadingly hides the aforementioned coordination between the Russians and the Trump Campaign. Moreover, Russian interference in the close 2016 election was significant enough to alter the outcome, regardless of the degree of coordination between the Kremlin and Trump and his supporters. The contradictory vilification of Mueller by Trumpists and false claims that the Special Counsel had proven Trump innocent will never alter the judgment of history in favor of Mueller and his investigation. Mueller’s legacy of public service, both in war and as a prosecutor of criminals, and his integrity and conservative record, for which he was honored with bipartisan praise at the time of his passing, will be remembered far more favorably than that of Trump, who publicly celebrated Mueller’s death, or Trump’s campaign, administration or supporters, and inspire others to serve the people patriotically, honestly and bravely.