Robert Mueller Bio
Robert Swan Mueller III (born 7 August 1944) is an American lawyer and former government official who served as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A Princeton and New York University graduate, he served as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, before obtaining his law degree from the University of Virginia. Mueller later served as Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019.
Mueller held numerous senior Justice Department positions throughout his career, including United States Attorney, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, and Acting Deputy Attorney General. He is the only FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972 to receive a congressional exemption allowing him to serve more than the statutory ten-year term limit. In 2017, he was appointed Special Counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters, submitting his report to the Attorney General in March 2019.
Early Life and Background
Robert Swan Mueller III was born on 7 August 1944 at Doctors Hospital in the Manhattan borough of New York City. He was the first child of Alice C. Truesdale and Robert Swan Mueller Jr., an executive with DuPont who had served as a Navy officer during World War II. He has four younger sisters: Susan, Sandra, Joan, and Patricia. On his mother’s side, he is a great-grandson of the railroad executive William Truesdale. His paternal great-grandfather, Gustave A. Mueller, was a prominent doctor in Pittsburgh.
Mueller grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, where he attended Princeton Country Day School. After completing eighth grade, his family moved to Philadelphia, while he went on to attend St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, for high school. At St. Paul’s, he captained the soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams and won the Gordon Medal as the school’s top athlete in 1962. A lacrosse teammate and classmate at St. Paul’s was future Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry. Mueller is of German, English, and Scottish descent.
After graduating from St. Paul’s, Mueller entered Princeton University, where he continued to play lacrosse and received a Bachelor of Arts in politics in 1966. His senior thesis was titled “Acceptance of Jurisdiction in the South West Africa Cases.” He earned a Master of Arts in international relations from New York University in 1967. Mueller joined the United States Marine Corps in 1968 and, after his military service, enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated in 1973.
Path to US Politics
After receiving his Juris Doctor in 1973, Mueller worked as a litigator at the firm Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro in San Francisco until 1976. He then began a long career of public service, working in United States Attorney offices for twelve years. He first served in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he rose to chief of the criminal division. In 1982, he moved to Boston to work in the office of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, investigating and prosecuting major financial fraud, terrorism, and public corruption cases.
After working as a partner at the Boston law firm of Hill and Barlow, Mueller returned to government service in 1989 as an assistant to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and as Acting Deputy Attorney General. In 1990, he became the United States Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Criminal Division. During his tenure, he oversaw prosecutions of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the Pan Am Flight 103 case, and Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.
In 1993, Mueller became a partner at Boston’s Hale and Dorr, specializing in white-collar crime litigation. He returned to public service in 1995 as a senior litigator in the homicide section of the District of Columbia United States Attorney’s Office. In 1998, Mueller was named U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, a position he held until 2001.
Robert Mueller Career
Early Career (1973–1998)
Mueller’s legal career began in 1973 at Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro in San Francisco, where he worked as a litigator for three years. He transitioned to public service in 1976, joining the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco and rising to become chief of the criminal division. His early career was marked by steady advancement through federal prosecution, with a focus on financial fraud, terrorism, and public corruption.
In 1982, Mueller transferred to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts, where he handled major cases involving narcotics conspiracies and international money laundering. He was elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1991. Following a period in private practice, he returned to government as a senior litigator in the homicide section of the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1995.
FBI Leadership (2001–2013)
President George W. Bush nominated Mueller for the position of FBI Director on 5 July 2001. The Senate unanimously confirmed him on 2 August 2001, voting 98–0 in favor of his appointment. He was officially sworn in on 4 September 2001, one week before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. His confirmation hearings had been delayed by several months while he underwent treatment for prostate cancer, diagnosed in the fall of 2000.
During his tenure, Mueller led the FBI through a period of significant change in national security and counterterrorism efforts. He worked to transform the bureau to address evolving threats, including the establishment of a new counterterrorism structure. In May 2011, President Barack Obama asked Mueller to continue at the helm of the FBI for two additional years beyond his normal ten-year term. The Senate approved this request 100–0 on 27 July 2011. On 4 September 2013, Mueller was replaced by James Comey.
Special Counsel Investigation (2017–2019)
On 17 May 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to serve as Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice. In this capacity, Mueller oversaw the investigation into any links and coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, as well as any matters that arose from the investigation. His appointment immediately garnered bipartisan support in Congress.
On 22 March 2019, Mueller concluded his investigation and submitted the special counsel’s final report to Attorney General William Barr. The report did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 election. On the question of obstruction of justice, the report neither accused nor exonerated the President. On 18 April 2019, the Department of Justice released the report publicly. On 29 May 2019, Mueller announced his retirement and the closure of the Office of the Special Counsel.
Post-Government Work (2013–Present)
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, focusing on cybersecurity issues. He joined the law firm WilmerHale as a partner in its Washington office in 2014. Among other roles at the firm, he oversaw the independent investigation into the NFL’s conduct surrounding a video involving player Ray Rice.
In October 2019, Mueller returned to WilmerHale to resume private practice alongside former colleagues. In June 2021, the University of Virginia Law School announced that Mueller would participate in a six-session course on the Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel. In July 2024, the publisher Simon & Schuster announced the upcoming release of the book Interference, authored by former members of his investigation, for which Mueller wrote the introduction.
Robert Mueller Family
Family Background and Heritage
Mueller was born into a family with deep American roots. His father, Robert Swan Mueller Jr., was an executive with DuPont who had served as a Navy officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters during World War II. His mother was Alice C. Truesdale. Mueller is of German, English, and Scottish descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Gustave A. Mueller, was a prominent doctor in Pittsburgh, whose own father had immigrated to the United States from the Province of Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1855.
Personal Life
Mueller met his future wife, Ann Cabell Standish, at a high school party when they were seventeen. They married in September 1966 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. The couple has two daughters and three grandchildren. One of their daughters was born with spina bifida. Although raised Presbyterian, Mueller later became an Episcopalian. The family resides in Washington, D.C.