President Donald Trump responded with glee to the death of an American hero whom the president turned into a political enemy.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller died at age 81 on Friday night, according to his family. Mueller, a Bronze Star combat veteran known for his devout faith, devotion to his family, and public service, led the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, earning the ire of Trump.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away,” his family said in a statement on Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
The cause of death was not immediately clear, but sources told MS Now that Mueller had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years.
“Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump wrote in a bitter Truth Social post. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Trump has despised Mueller since the storied former FBI director was appointed special counsel for the investigation into the ties between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials.
The first of five children, Mueller volunteered for the Marines soon after he graduated from Princeton in 1966. Over three years, he rose through the ranks to become the leader of a rifle platoon of the Third Marine Division in Vietnam.
“I’m most proud the Marines Corps deemed me worthy of leading other Marines,” he told journalist Garrett Graft in 2009. He later received the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
Like Trump, who is only two years his junior, Mueller was also born in New York City and received an Ivy League education. The president, however, notoriously dodged the draft five times, once on account of his bone spurs.
Mueller went on to study law at the University of Virginia after leaving the military. After earning his degree in 1973, he spent more than a decade in U.S. Attorney’s Offices and became an assistant to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh in 1989.
Mueller held Senate-confirmed positions under four different administrations, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
In 2001, just a week before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mueller became the sixth director of the FBI following his nomination by then-President George W. Bush. He would go on to become the second-longest serving FBI director after the legendary Edgar J. Hoover, earning acclaim for transforming the bureau and exposing abuses at the CIA’s secret prisons for terrorism suspects.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
