Robert Swan Mueller III (; August 7, 1944 – March 20, 2026) was an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.
A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served as a U.S. Marine Corps officer during the Vietnam War, receiving a Bronze Star for heroism and a Purple Heart. He later attended the University of Virginia School of Law. Mueller was a registered Republican in Washington, D.C., and was appointed or reappointed to Senate-confirmed positions by presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Mueller worked in both government and private practice. He served as an Assistant U.S. attorney, a U.S. attorney, the U.S. assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division, a homicide prosecutor in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, acting U.S. deputy attorney general, a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm WilmerHale, and director of the FBI. He was the only FBI director permitted by Congress to serve more than the statutory 10‑year term limit since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972, receiving a special two‑year extension.
In 2017, Mueller was appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters. He submitted his report in 2019, after which the Office of the Special Counsel was closed and Mueller resigned.
Robert Swan Mueller III was born on August 7, 1944, at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, the first child of Alice C. Truesdale (1920–2007) and Robert Swan Mueller Jr. (1916–2007). He had four younger sisters: Susan, Sandra, Joan, and Patricia. His father, an executive with DuPont, had served as a U.S. Navy officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters during World War II. He studied psychology at Princeton University and played varsity lacrosse.
Mueller was of German, English, and Scottish descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Gustave A. Mueller, was a prominent physician in Pittsburgh; Gustave's father, August C. E. Müller, immigrated to the United States in 1855 from the Province of Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia, a region whose historical boundaries later formed parts of Poland and northeastern Germany. On his mother's side, Mueller was a great-grandson of railroad executive William Truesdale.
Mueller grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Princeton Country Day School. After eighth grade, his family moved to Philadelphia, while he enrolled at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. At St. Paul's, he captained the soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams and received the Gordon Medal as the school's top athlete in 1962. One of his lacrosse teammates and classmates was future U.S. Massachusetts Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry.
After graduating from St. Paul's, Mueller attended Princeton University, where he continued to play lacrosse and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Politics in 1966. His senior thesis was titled "Acceptance of Jurisdiction in the South West Africa Cases". He was a member of University Cottage Club. Mueller received a Master of Arts in International Relations from New York University in 1967. In 1968, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After completing his military service, Mueller attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Virginia Law Review and earned a Juris Doctor in 1973.
United States Marine Corps service
Mueller cited the combat death of his Princeton lacrosse teammate David Spencer Hackett in the Vietnam War as an influence on his decision to pursue military service. Of his classmate, Mueller said, "One of the reasons I went into the Marine Corps was because we lost a very good friend, a Marine in Vietnam, who was a year ahead of me at Princeton. There were a number of us who felt we should follow his example and at least go into the service. And it flows from there." Hackett, a Marine Corps first lieutenant in the infantry, was killed in 1967 in Quảng Trị province by small arms fire.
After waiting a year for a knee injury to heal, Mueller was accepted for officer training in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968. He attended training at Parris Island, Officer Candidate School, Ranger School, and Jump School. He later said that he considered Ranger School the most valuable because it "more than anything teaches you about how you react with no sleep and nothing to eat."
In the summer of 1968, Mueller was deployed to South Vietnam, where he served as a rifle platoon leader with Second Platoon, H Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. On December 11, 1968, during an engagement in Operation Scotland II, he earned the Bronze Star with "V" device for combat valor after rescuing a wounded Marine under enemy fire during an ambush in which half of his platoon became casualties. In April 1969, he was wounded in the thigh by enemy gunfire, recovered, and returned to lead his platoon until June 1969.
For his service in the Vietnam War, Mueller's military decorations and awards included the Bronze Star Medal with "V" device, the Purple Heart, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals with Combat "V", the Combat Action Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with four service stars, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Parachutist Badge.
After recuperating at a field hospital near Da Nang, Mueller served as aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division, then–Major General William K. Jones. One report stated that he "significantly contributed to the rapport" Jones maintained with other officers. Mueller had originally considered a career in the Marine Corps, but later explained that he found non-combat life in the service unexciting. After returning from South Vietnam, he was briefly stationed at Henderson Hall before leaving active-duty service in August 1970 as a captain.
Reflecting on his service, Mueller said, "I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have made it out of Vietnam. There were many—many—who did not. And perhaps because I did survive Vietnam, I have always felt compelled to contribute." In 2009, he told a writer that despite his other accomplishments, he remained "most proud the Marine Corps deemed me worthy of leading other Marines."
Private practice and Department of Justice
After receiving his Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of Virginia School of Law, Mueller worked as a litigator at the firm Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro in San Francisco until 1976. He then served for 12 years in U.S. Attorney offices. He first worked in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where he rose to become chief of the criminal division. In 1982, he moved to Boston to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney of the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, where he investigated and prosecuted major financial fraud, terrorism, and public corruption cases, as well as narcotics conspiracies and international money‑laundering operations.
After serving as a partner at the Boston law firm Hill and Barlow, Mueller returned to government service. In 1989, he served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and as acting deputy attorney general. James Baker, who worked with him on national security matters, said Mueller had "an appreciation for the Constitution and the rule of law".