The man who will oversee the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is very familiar with how the FBI conducts investigations.
The man named to act as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is very familiar with how the FBI conducts its business.
Former FBI director Robert Mueller, 72, served as just-fired James Comey’s predecessor, heading the agency for 12 years in the wake of the nation’s worst terror attack.
Mueller was nominated as the sixth director of the FBI by George W. Bush in 2001.
He officially took over the post only a week before 9/11, following a unanimous vote by the Senate.
Under his leadership, the FBI was transformed into a counterterrorism agency — Mueller often spoke of the threat of cyberterrorism and online espionage.
In 2011, his tenure was extended by two years after then-President Obama asked Congress to allow him to stay on, making him the longest-serving director since J. Edgar Hoover. Obama argued that his national security team needed continuity as the Pentagon and the CIA were both getting new leaders.
Prior to his time with the FBI, Mueller served as the United States attorney in both San Francisco and Boston, and he was assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the Justice Department.
After graduating from Princeton in 1966, he served with the Marines in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
He later received a law degree at the University of Virginia.
Mueller’s appointment comes amid a growing Democratic outcry for someone outside the Justice Department to handle the politically charged investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
It follows the revelation Tuesday that fired FBI Director James Comey wrote in a memo that Trump had asked him to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Mueller has spent the last several years in private practice, working for the WilmerHale law firm in 2014.
His bio page on the law firm’s website was not active on Wednesday evening.
In 2015, Mueller headed a special independent investigation into how the NLF handled the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.
He concluded that there was “no evidence” the NFL possessed tape of Rice striking his wife before said video was released publicly.
Last year, he was appointed to oversee settlement negotiations in the class action lawsuits regarding Volkswagen’s emissions scandal.
