Robert Mueller doesn’t say much, but the former FBI director did offer insight into why he accepted the role as special counsel to investigate Russian election interference in the 2016 election.
“I found that I’ve gotten tremendous enjoyment out of public service,” Mueller said in a newly published interview. “And I find it hard to turn down a challenging assignment.”
Mueller, who is now 76, was appointed special counsel in May 2017 after former President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia was wrapped into Mueller’s special counsel effort, which culminated in the release of a 448-page report with redactions in April 2019. Some of those redactions have since been lifted.
Mueller’s team was unable to find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but the report described 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice that Democrats seized on as a road map to impeachment. The investigation did, however, lead to several convictions and guilty pleas from Trump’s associates over charges unrelated to collusion with Russia.
Mueller, who is also a decorated Marine Corps veteran and served during the Vietnam War, is known for being a man of few words. He spoke briefly about his time as special counsel with a guest on season four of the Oath, a podcast hosted by Chuck Rosenberg, a former acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration and onetime counsel to Mueller at the FBI. Part two of that interview, recorded last year, was released this week.
When prompted, Mueller offered praise to agents, analysts, and prosecutors who served on his team.
“I had an exceptional team of men and women who worked with me to conduct the investigation and write the report,” Mueller said. “And they all work with a huge sense of integrity. Although the decisions that were made were mine. And then when the office did the work, they did exceptionally well.”
Mueller has written the occasional statement or op-ed to comment on developments related to the inquiry, including to say that Roger Stone was “rightfully” still a convicted felon after Trump commuted his longtime friend’s sentence. Trump pardoned Stone in December and also did so for other targets of Mueller’s investigation toward the end of his tenure.
In September, Mueller defended the Russia investigation against criticism from former special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann and others, arguing that he ran the effort “without any interest in currying favor or fear of the consequences.”
Trump and many of his allies have long derided the investigation as a “witch hunt,” and there are efforts underway by the Justice Department and Republicans in Congress to seek out any misconduct by the investigators. Democrats have long criticized former Attorney General William Barr, who assumed control of the Justice Department in February 2019, for preceding the release of Mueller’s report with a letter of “principal conclusions” in which he and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there was insufficient evidence to establish that Trump obstructed justice.
Mueller has avoided big public appearances since he testified before two House committees in July 2019 and offered Rosenberg a brief explanation for why he hewed closely to the confines of his Russia investigation report.
“Because the report says all I have to say about the investigation,” Mueller said. “Having been a prosecutor for a period of time, I know and understand the role of the prosecutor is to develop facts and not theories. And consequently, I believed it was appropriate to put into the report issues that explain exactly what our findings were, and I refer you to the report.”
