Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who spent more than a decade leading the nation’s top law enforcement agency and later oversaw one of the most consequential investigations in modern American political history, died Friday night at the age of 81.
Mueller’s family confirmed his passing in a statement, asking that their privacy be respected. No official cause of death was announced, though his family disclosed in August 2025 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021.
Mueller served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013.
He was first nominated to the post by President George W. Bush in 2001 and went on to become the second-longest-serving FBI director in history, per reports.
Mueller took over the FBI a week before the September 11 attacks and ran the bureau for 12 years, longer than anyone except former Director J. Edgar Hoover.
He redirected thousands of agents from criminal cases to counterterrorism, transforming the bureau from a law enforcement agency into a national security one.
President Donald Trump responded to the news of Mueller’s death Saturday on Truth Social.
“Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” Trump wrote.
Trump and Mueller’s feud stems from Mueller’s involvement in the investigation and his 2019 final report, which concluded that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. However, the report found no evidence that anyone associated with the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.
In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order cutting ties between federal agencies and the law firm WilmerHale, Mueller’s former employer. The order was subsequently struck down by a judge as unconstitutional, per MS NOW.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow addressed Mueller’s death Saturday during “The Weekend Primetime,” dedicating significant airtime to what she characterized as failures surrounding the handling of his final report.
“There’s a reason on a day like this, we need to remind people what was in Mueller’s report — what were the results of his investigation, and that’s because of a failure on his part,” Maddow said.
Maddow directed pointed criticism at former Attorney General Bill Barr, who oversaw the release of Mueller’s report.
“That is because once his investigation and his report were concluded, he was just wildly outmaneuvered by a really serpentine attorney general named Bill Barr, who played really dirty pool when it came to the handling and release of the information from Mueller’s investigation,” she said.
Maddow further described what she called a “bureaucratic failure” on Mueller’s part.
“And that bureaucratic failure is the most important thing in American history about the Mueller report, not his findings, but the way they were submarined by a — in my opinion — disreputable, dishonorable set of actions by the attorney general who handled the release of that report,” she said.
Maddow also called Mueller’s death “the end of an era.”
“There aren’t many people for whom I would say this, but it is the end of an era. Robert Mueller is the last in a line of people that I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of again,” she said.
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Former President Barack Obama wrote that Mueller “was one of the finest directors in the history of the FBI” and heralded his “relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values.”
Former President George W. Bush, who nominated Mueller to lead the FBI, said he “led the agency effectively” in the wake of the September 11 attacks. “Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service,” Bush said.
CBS News reported that Mueller is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann Cabell Standish, their two daughters, and three grandchildren.
