作者：马歇尔·科恩、卡尼塔·伊耶、埃文·佩雷斯
更新于1小时41分钟前
更新于2026年3月21日，美国东部时间下午2:18
发布于2026年3月21日，美国东部时间下午1:44
[罗伯特·穆勒]，曾领导对唐纳德·特朗普2016年竞选活动与俄罗斯政府涉嫌勾结展开历史性调查的前FBI局长，已去世。他享年81岁。
“我们怀着深切的悲痛分享这个消息：鲍勃昨晚去世了，”他的家人在周六的声明中表示。“他的家人请求尊重他们的隐私。”
他的家人去年8月宣布，他于2021年被诊断出患有帕金森病。
多年来，穆勒在两党中都备受信任：2001年9月11日几天前，他被乔治·W·布什总统选为FBI局长，获得全票通过；奥巴马总统任期内，他被要求在10年任期后留任，再次获得全力支持。他担任该职务12年，成为自埃德加·胡佛以来任职时间最长的FBI局长。
他的正直声誉是他被选中调查政治敏感的特朗普案件的关键因素。但到调查在特朗普第一任期中期结束时，与美国政治格局中其他许多事情一样，对穆勒的看法在很大程度上因党派分歧而分裂。
最终，对特朗普的调查结果喜忧参半。调查人员发现，尽管双方均否认存在任何联系，但特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯政府之间存在数十次秘密且通常是高层的接触。调查还强调，特朗普热切利用克里姆林宫干预选举的行为，他的竞选团队“预计会从俄罗斯方面获取并发布的信息中在选举中获益”。
然而，穆勒并未证实特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯合谋。尽管他掌握了所需证据，却做出了颇具争议的决定，即不起诉特朗普，称由于当时特朗普是在任总统，他甚至无法考虑起诉。
2019年7月24日，穆勒在众议院司法委员会就其关于2016年总统选举中俄罗斯干预的报告作证前到达现场。
（图片来源：Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images）
穆勒遭到了无情且毫无根据的指控，称其领导了一场政治偏见的调查，特朗普将其称为“政治迫害”，这摧毁了他在两党中广受好评的完美声誉。
穆勒做出了极具影响力的决定：主要让这份448页的报告自行说明问题，而非向美国公众全面解释他的结论。这意味着他的调查结果被特朗普及其盟友近乎无休止的谎言和阴谋论所淹没。
“罗伯特·穆勒刚刚去世。很好，我很高兴他死了，”特朗普周六在Truth Social上写道。“他再也不能伤害无辜的人了！”
他的调查带来的影响持续至今。在特朗普任内，任命了一名特别检察官调查俄罗斯调查本身是否存在不当行为，该调查从2019年持续至2023年。这仍是2024年竞选活动中的一个关键问题，特朗普经常攻击所谓的“俄罗斯骗局”。
在2021年MSNBC播客中回顾职业生涯时，穆勒表示：“每个人都必须确定自己能以何种方式最好地服务他人，让他们相信自己的时间没有白费。”
“我最终能在政府和私人执业中，以及在各种机构中度过一些时光，我开始相信，你选择何种方式服务其实并不重要，”他说。“我们唯一的要求是，你要为你的国家、你的社区工作。”
穆勒特别检察官办公室的副手安德鲁·戈德斯坦周六对CNN表示：“我可以代表大家说，鲍勃是一位非凡的人和领导者，他对正义和法治的奉献精神应该成为我们所有人的榜样，尤其是在最具挑战性的时刻。”
在司法部步步高升
穆勒1944年出生于纽约市，当时美国正卷入第二次世界大战。
他于1966年从普林斯顿大学获得学士学位，并同年加入美国海军陆战队。他参加了越南战争，荣获铜星勋章、紫心勋章、越南英勇十字勋章和两枚海军 commendation 奖章。
穆勒作为海军陆战队中尉。
（图片来源：US National Archives）
穆勒还获得了纽约大学的硕士学位，随后获得弗吉尼亚大学的法律学位。
法学院毕业后，穆勒在加州一家律师事务所担任律师助理，1976年加入加州北区美国检察官办公室。
整个20世纪80年代和90年代，穆勒在律师事务所和司法部之间辗转。1982年，他成为马萨诸塞州的美国助理检察官。在波士顿一家律师事务所担任合伙人后，他重返公共服务领域，1990年晋升为司法部刑事司助理司法部长。
在刑事司任职期间，穆勒监督了几起高调的起诉案件，包括对巴拿马独裁者曼努埃尔·诺列加和纽约黑帮头目约翰·戈蒂的定罪。
但据其周围人描述，洛克比空难调查是对穆勒影响最大的案件。
1988年12月，一架从伦敦飞往纽约的泛美航班在苏格兰洛克比镇上空被炸弹炸毁，造成270人死亡。穆勒领导了对此次袭击的调查，并指控两人——其中一人后来被无罪释放——制造了炸弹。穆勒的前首席幕僚2019年告诉CNN，即使在审判后，他仍连续几年参加洛克比受害者的年度纪念仪式。
2011年12月21日星期三，穆勒在弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿国家公墓的洛克比纪念 Cairn 举行的仪式上发表讲话，纪念泛美103航班在苏格兰洛克比上空被炸毁23周年。
（图片来源：Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP）
在刑事司期间，他还监督创建了司法部首个网络专门部门。之后，穆勒成为弗吉尼亚州一家律师事务所的高级合伙人，随后重返司法部，加入华盛顿特区美国检察官办公室的凶杀案部门。
1998年，穆勒回到加利福尼亚州，担任加州北区美国检察官。
领导后9/11时代的FBI
2001年9月，穆勒宣誓就任FBI局长。上任一周后，9/11恐怖袭击爆发，他立即将FBI的工作重点从国内犯罪转向反恐行动。
穆勒是后9/11安全政策的关键领导者，并通过布什签署的有争议的《爱国者法案》获得了前所未有的国内权力。该法案被用来为秘密收集数百万美国人私人通信数据以及扩大联邦政府使用禁飞名单辩护。这些措施因不成比例地针对阿拉伯裔和穆斯林美国人而受到批评。
局长驳回了监控措施侵犯美国人隐私的担忧。在他担任FBI局长的最后几天，他告诉CNN，中央情报局、FBI、国家安全局和其他机构之间的信息交流“是可以理解且绝对必要的，如果你想保护美国的安全”。
穆勒告诉CNN，“如果这些监控项目在9/11之前就已实施，很有可能至少能阻止部分袭击”。
然而，这些措施未能阻止2013年4月毁灭性的波士顿马拉松爆炸案，进一步引发对其有效性的质疑。
2013年4月20日，穆勒（坐在桌旁右数第二位）在奥巴马总统就波士顿马拉松爆炸案调查举行的情况室会议中聆听。
（图片来源：Pete Souza/The White House）
穆勒向国会小组承认，尽管其中一名嫌疑人塔梅尔兰·察尔纳耶夫被列入低级别观察名单，美国海关与边境保护局已被通知其旅行情况，但在爆炸发生前一年多他前往俄罗斯旅行期间（据《华盛顿邮报》报道，他在那里会见了伊斯兰武装分子），没有采取任何应对措施。
在任期结束前，穆勒试图再次改革司法部，呼吁优先处理网络威胁，他预测网络威胁将超过恐怖主义，成为“国家头号威胁”。
穆勒于2013年9月卸任FBI局长。
特朗普-俄罗斯调查结果
2017年5月，穆勒被任命为特别检察官，监督对特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯可能存在勾结的调查。经过多年调查，穆勒的448页报告于2019年4月发布，结论是调查人员未证实特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯合谋。
然而，报告包含了大量证据，彻底驳斥了特朗普关于其竞选团队与俄罗斯没有任何联系的公开否认。
调查发现，特朗普竞选团队的两名高级官员保罗·马纳福特和瑞克·盖茨，与他们在乌克兰有过商业往来的一名俄罗斯间谍分享了内部竞选民意调查数据。拜登政府2021年证实，该特工将数据传递给了俄罗斯情报部门，后者积极干预竞选以帮助特朗普获胜。
报告以及对特朗普非正式顾问罗杰·斯通的后续审判还披露，竞选团队欢迎维基解密发布对希拉里·克林顿不利的被盗电子邮件和文件，并视斯通为获取泄密信息的渠道，毫不犹豫地加以利用。
穆勒进一步发现，2016年6月，特朗普之子小唐纳德·特朗普、女婿贾里德·库什纳和马纳福特在特朗普大厦与一名与克里姆林宫有关联的律师会面，期望此次会面能获得对克林顿不利的信息，尽管并未如愿。
2019年5月29日，穆勒在华盛顿特区司法部就俄罗斯调查发表声明。
（图片来源：Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images）
调查还披露，特朗普的公司在2016年竞选总统期间仍在推进特朗普大厦莫斯科项目，尽管他多次声称自己在俄罗斯没有商业活动。该交易包括一些克里姆林宫高级官员。
总体而言，据CNN当时分析，报告记录了至少77起特朗普竞选团队成员、政府官员、家庭成员、共和党支持者及其关联人向公众、国会或当局撒谎或作虚假陈述（有时是无意的）的具体事件。
最终，37人及实体被起诉，7人被判入狱，包括后来被特朗普赦免的斯通和马纳福特。穆勒总共对特朗普2016年竞选团队的6名成员定罪：斯通、马纳福特、盖茨、迈克尔·弗林、迈克尔·科恩和乔治·帕帕多普洛斯。
在报告中，穆勒称俄罗斯间谍机构应对针对克林顿竞选团队和民主党全国委员会的黑客入侵行为负责，这些行为通过公开泄露内部尴尬和不利邮件动摇了2016年竞选。穆勒还证实，2016年俄罗斯黑客入侵了佛罗里达州两个县的地方选举系统。
但报告的调查结果被前总统及其盟友的攻击所淹没。穆勒选择基本保持沉默，这给了当时司法部长威廉·巴尔机会扭曲报告，使其看起来更有利于其老板，并让前总统能够利用广为人知的谎言进一步加强对调查的批评。
特朗普及其盟友还试图将穆勒不起诉总统的决定描绘成对他的无罪证明，尽管穆勒明确表示情况恰恰相反。
在罕见的公开声明中，穆勒明确表示，他受司法部禁止起诉在任总统的指导方针约束，并暗示国会可能会继续调查他对特朗普的妨碍调查。
“如果我们有信心总统显然没有犯罪，我们会这么说，”穆勒表示。“然而，我们没有确定总统是否犯罪。”
几个月后，穆勒于2019年7月不情愿地向国会作证，期间他显得语无伦次、心力交瘁，这进一步削弱了其调查结果的可信度。
穆勒任由共和党人打断他的发言，有时甚至在有机会反击时选择退让。
当时两名与穆勒关系密切的消息人士告诉CNN，他希望回答尽可能接近报告内容。但国会听证会明确显示，按部就班的做法无法应对司法部日益激烈的抹黑企图。
在随后的几年里，特朗普及其盟友强化了围绕穆勒调查的言论，以在司法部播下不信任的种子。
然而，在这场充满分歧的交锋中，穆勒对未来俄罗斯及其他国家干预选举的警告可能被听证会过程中忽视了。
“我希望这不是新的常态，”穆勒告诉国会。“但我担心这就是。”
本报道已更新了额外信息。
CNN的凯特琳·波兰茨对此报道有贡献。
Robert Mueller, former FBI director and special counsel in Trump-Russia probe, dies
By Marshall Cohen, Kaanita Iyer, Evan Perez
Updated 1 hr 41 min ago
Updated Mar 21, 2026, 2:18 PM ET
PUBLISHED Mar 21, 2026, 1:44 PM ET
[Robert Mueller], the former FBI director who led the historic probe into alleged collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, has died. He was 81.
“With deep sadness, we are sharing the news that Bob passed away last night,” his family said in a statement Saturday. “His family asks that their privacy be respected.”
His family announced last August that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021.
For years, Mueller was highly trusted on both sides of the aisle: When he was selected as FBI director by President George W. Bush just days before September 11, 2001, he was unanimously approved, and earned full support again when he was asked to stay past his 10-year tenure by President Barack Obama. He served in the role for 12 years, becoming the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover.
His reputation for integrity was a key factor in his selection to handle the politically sensitive investigation into Trump. But by the time the investigation concluded in the middle of Trump’s first presidency, views of Mueller, as was the case with so much else in the American political landscape, were largely divided along party lines.
Ultimately, the investigation into Trump produced mixed results. Investigators uncovered dozens of secret and often high-level contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, despite both sides denying there were any. The probe also highlighted how Trump eagerly capitalized on the Kremlin’s election-meddling and that his campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
However, Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. He also made the controversial decision not to charge Trump with obstruction even though he had the evidence he needed, saying he was prohibited from even considering it because Trump was the sitting president at the time.
Mueller arrives before testifying to the House Judiciary Committee about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on July 24, 2019.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Mueller was hit with relentless — and unfounded — allegations of leading a politically biased investigation, dubbed a “witch hunt” by Trump, which tanked his pristine reputation of being highly regarded by both parties.
Mueller’s highly consequential decision to largely let the 448-page report speak for itself, instead of thoroughly explaining his conclusions to the American public, meant that his findings were drowned out by the near-constant stream of lies and conspiracy theories from Trump and the president’s allies.
“Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
The fallout from his probe lives on. Under Trump, a special counsel was appointed to look for wrongdoing within the Russia investigation itself, and that probe ran from 2019 until 2023. It remained a key issue on the 2024 campaign trail, where Trump regularly attacked what he called the “Russia hoax.”
Reflecting on his career in a 2021 MSNBC podcast, Mueller said, “Each person must determine in what way they can best serve others in a way that will leave them believing that their time has been time well spent.”
“I’ve ended up being able to spend some time in the government and private practice, as well as in various institutions, and I’ve come to believe that it really does not matter which way you choose to serve,” he said. “The only thing that we ask is that you work for your country, for your community.”
Andrew Goldstein, a deputy to Mueller in the special counsel’s office, said to CNN on Saturday, “I can say on my behalf that Bob was an extraordinary person and leader whose dedication to justice and the rule of law should serve as an example to all of us, particularly in the most challenging of times.”
Rising through the ranks at the Justice Department
Mueller was born in New York City in 1944 as the country was embroiled in World War II.
He went on to earn his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1966 and joined the Marines the same year. He fought in the Vietnam War and was awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and two Navy Commendation Medals.
Mueller as a Marine lieutenant.
US National Archives
Mueller also earned a master’s degree from New York University, before obtaining a law degree from the University of Virginia.
Following law school, Mueller joined a law firm in California as an associate attorney before joining the US attorney’s office in the Northern District of California in 1976.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mueller oscillated between jobs at law firms and the Justice Department. In 1982, Mueller became an assistant US attorney in Massachusetts. Following a stint as a partner at a Boston law firm, Mueller returned to public service, working his way up to becoming the assistant attorney general for the criminal division at the DOJ in 1990.
During his time at the criminal division, Mueller oversaw several high-profile prosecutions, including the convictions of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and New York mobster John Gotti.
But those around him described the Lockerbie bombing investigation as the case that had the biggest impact on Mueller.
In December 1988, a Pan Am flight traveling from London to New York was destroyed by a bomb over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, leaving 270 people dead. Mueller led the investigation into the attack and brought charges against two men — one of whom was later acquitted — for making the bomb. Mueller’s former chief of staff told CNN in 2019 that even after the trial, he attended the annual memorial service for Lockerbie victims for several years.
Mueller delivers remarks during a ceremony at the Lockerbie Memorial Cairn at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., marking the 23rd anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Following the criminal division — where he also oversaw the creation of the agency’s first cyber-dedicated unit — Mueller went on to become a senior partner at a law firm in Virginia before returning to the DOJ to join the homicide section of the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC.
Mueller returned to the Golden State in 1998 to become the US attorney for the Northern District of California.
Leading the FBI in a post-9/11 world
Mueller was sworn in as FBI director in September 2001. A week into his tenure, he was thrust into shifting the department’s focus from domestic crimes to anti-terrorism efforts in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Mueller was a key leader on post-9/11 security policy and received unprecedented domestic authority through the controversial Patriot Act signed into law by Bush. The law was used to justify the secret collection of millions of Americans’ private communication data and to expand the federal government’s use of no-fly lists, measures that have been criticized for disproportionately targeting Arab and Muslim Americans.
The director dismissed concerns that the surveillance practices infringed on Americans’ privacy, and in his final days as FBI director, he told CNN that the exchange of information between the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and other agencies is “understandable and absolutely necessary if you want to protect the security of the United States.”
Mueller told CNN that “there’s a good chance” the surveillance programs could have “prevented at least a part of 9/11” had they been in place prior.
However, such measures could not prevent the devastating Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, drawing further scrutiny into their effectiveness.
Mueller, second from right at the table, listens as President Barack Obama holds a meeting in Situation Room on the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing on April 20, 2013.
Pete Souza/The White House
Mueller admitted to a congressional panel that despite one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, being placed on a low-level watch list that alerted US Customs and Border Protection of his travel, no action was taken in response to his travel more than a year before the bombing to Russia, during which he reportedly met with Islamic militants, according to The Washington Post.
Mueller closed out his tenure by attempting another department overhaul and called for the agency to prioritize cyber threats, which he predicted would surpass terrorism as “the No. 1 threat to our country.”
Mueller stepped down as FBI director in September 2013.
Trump-Russia investigation findings
In May 2017, Mueller was appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s campaign associates and Russia. After years of investigation, Mueller’s 448-page report was released in April 2019, concluding that investigators did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia.
However, the report included significant findings that eviscerated Trump’s public denials of any contacts between his campaign and Russia.
Mueller discovered that two senior Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, shared internal campaign polling with a Russian spy they knew from previous business dealings in Ukraine. The Biden administration confirmed in 2021 that the agent passed data along to Russia’s intelligence services, which were actively meddling in the campaign to help Trump win.
The report, along with the subsequent trial of informal Trump adviser Roger Stone, also revealed that the campaign welcomed the release of stolen emails and documents damaging to Hillary Clinton by WikiLeaks and saw Stone as an access point to the leaks, which they didn’t hesitate to use.
Mueller further discovered that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and Manafort eagerly met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016 and expected the meeting to deliver damaging information on Clinton, though it didn’t pan out.
Mueller makes a statement about the Russia investigation on May 29, 2019, at the Justice Department in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The investigation also revealed that Trump’s company pursued a deal for Trump Tower Moscow while campaigning for president in 2016 — and that the talks included some senior Kremlin officials — even though he repeatedly claimed he had no business activities in Russia.
Overall, the report documented at least 77 specific instances where Trump’s campaign staff, administration officials and family members, Republican backers and his associates lied or made false assertions (sometimes unintentionally) to the public, Congress or authorities, according to a CNN analysis at the time.
Ultimately, charges were brought against 37 people and entities, and seven people were sentenced to prison, including Stone and Manafort, who were later pardoned by Trump. In all, Mueller secured convictions against six Trump 2016 campaign associates: Stone, Manafort, Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen and George Papadopoulos.
In his report, Mueller said Russian spy agencies were responsible for the hack-and-leak operations against Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which rocked the 2016 campaign with public releases of embarrassing and damaging internal emails. Mueller also confirmed that Russian hackers compromised local election systems of two Florida counties in 2016.
But the findings of the report were drowned out by attacks from the former president and his allies. Mueller chose to largely remain silent, giving then-Attorney General William Barr the opportunity to twist the report to make it look better for his boss and allowing the former president to ramp up his criticism with widely debunked lies about the investigation.
Trump and his allies also attempted to paint the picture that Mueller’s decision to not bring charges against the president exonerated him, even though Mueller explicitly said the opposite was true.
In a rare public statement, Mueller made it clear that he was constrained by Justice Department guidelines against indicting a president, and he signaled that his obstruction investigation into Trump could be picked up by Congress.
“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”
A few months later, Mueller reluctantly testified to Congress in July 2019, during which he came across as shaky and defeated, further allowing his findings to be muffled.
Mueller let Republicans speak over him and sometimes stood down when given opportunities to fight back.
Two sources close to Mueller told CNN at the time that he wanted to keep his answers as close to the report as possible. But the congressional hearing made it clear that a by-the-book approach would be no match to the intensifying attempts to discredit the work of the DOJ.
In the years since, Trump and his allies have strengthened the rhetoric used around the Mueller investigation to sow distrust in the Justice Department.
But in the divisive exchange, what was perhaps lost during Mueller’s testimony were his warnings of future election interferences from Russia and other countries.
“I hope this is not the new normal,” Mueller told Congress. “But I fear it is.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.