President Trump reacted to news of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s death on Saturday by writing on Truth Social that he was “glad he’s dead,” reflecting his continued disdain for Mueller’s probe into Russian interference and the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election.
“Robert Mueller just died,” he wrote. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Mueller, who died on Friday night at the age of 81, was appointed by then-acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to serve as special counsel in the Russian interference investigation in May 2017, a move that came days after Trump fired James Comey as FBI director.
In June of that year, the Washington Post reported that Mueller was investigating Trump for possible obstruction following congressional testimony from Comey in which he claimed the president asked him to end an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Trump fired back in a New York Times interview about a month later, accusing Mueller’s office of conflicts of interest and warning him against widening his inquiry beyond Russia.
The next several months were characterized by a series of arrests and indictments of figures in Trump’s orbit, including Flynn; his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort; Manafort’s former business partner, Richard Gates; and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
In April 2018, federal investigators raided the apartment, hotel room and office of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Investigators reportedly sought records related to the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that was released shortly before the presidential election and other evidence that had been concealed because it was potentially damaging to Trump.
The investigation continued, and in November of that year, Trump submitted written answers to Mueller about “issues regarding the Russia-related topics of the inquiry,” capping months of back-and-forth over how much the president would cooperate.
Roger Stone, an informal adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, was indicted in January of 2019, as Mueller’s probe neared its conclusion.
The 22-month investigation culminated in a 448-page report that found the Trump campaign did not conspire or coordinate with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. Mueller declined, however, to conclude whether Trump had obstructed justice.
“As set forth in our report, after that investigation, if we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Muller said in 2019 when the investigation was finished. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime.”
The investigation became a prime target of Trump’s, with the president regularly lashing out at Mueller and labeling the probe a “witch hunt,” “hoax,” and other pejoratives. He maintained it was politically motivated, a claim he continues to echo nearly seven years later.
In the waning months of his first term, Trump granted clemency to Papadopoulos and Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan. He also pardoned Flynn, a decision former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at the time “sets right an injustice against an innocent man and an American hero.”
Trump’s cold response to Mueller’s death on Saturday quickly drew strong backlash online.
“Every day, this president shows his basic indecency and unfitness for office,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on the social platform X.
“The cruelty is the point,” Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on X. “Trump’s goal is to distract you from rising gas prices, his aimless war, ICE abuses, and the Epstein files. Don’t give him what he wants. And may Robert Mueller, a US Marine and lifelong public servant, rest in peace.”
Trump faced similar condemnation, including from some Republicans, in December when he suggested that director Rob Reiner and his wife, who were stabbed to death in their home, had died from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
