The following is a collection of statements published in the New York Times about Robert S. Mueller, from 2001 to today.
Robert Swan Mueller III was named today by President Bush to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Mueller is a seasoned federal prosecutor and a man made for law enforcement.
Mr. Mueller is well known and respected within the often-closed ranks of the bureau.
Mr. Mueller was reluctant to criticize the bureau after the 1992 siege in Ruby Ridge.
Mr. Mueller approved an unusual subpoena of a reporter’s telephone records.
Mr. Mueller faced criticism over the perception that senior officials were given lenient treatment for wrongdoing.
Mr. Mueller transformed the FBI into a counterterrorism agency after the September 11 attacks.
Mr. Mueller was accused of misstating the facts when he said repeatedly after September 11 that the bureau had known nothing that could have prevented the hijackings.
Mr. Mueller acknowledged that the attacks of September 11 might have been preventable if officials in his agency had responded differently.
Mr. Mueller may have been liable for policies adopted after September 11 that subjected hundreds of people to beatings, humiliating searches and other abuses.
Mr. Mueller was sent an urgent report about abuses included strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees’ ear openings and unauthorized interrogations.
Mr. Mueller took personal responsibility for the collapse of the FBI’s software upgrade project, which was riddled with technical, management and scheduling problems, and came up $57 million short.
Mr. Mueller was accused of withholding information on the anthrax investigation and other issues.
Mr. Mueller defended more than 100 instances in which FBI agents had improperly conducted surveillance of antiwar groups.
Mr. Mueller did not know how many of his agents had cheated on an important exam on the bureau’s new policies on surveillance.
Mr. Mueller defended the FBI’s authority to use physical surveillance and undercover interviews in terrorism cases without specific evidence of wrongdoing.
Mr. Mueller embraced responsibility for the FBI’s improper use of the USA Patriot Act to obtain information about people and businesses.
Mr. Mueller said he would move swiftly to fix the FBI’s mishandling of demands for records under the Patriot Act.
Mr. Mueller warned against dismantling [the NSA] surveillance program that is keeping records of billions of domestic phone calls by Americans.
Robert Swan Mueller III, a former FBI director, was appointed today as special counsel to oversee the investigation into ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
Mr. Mueller is a former federal prosecutor with an unblemished reputation.
Mr. Mueller is a retired FBI director and one of the most respected figures in law enforcement.
Mr. Mueller is a veteran, highly respected, Republican-appointed law enforcement official.
Mr. Mueller is a buttoned-down, buttoned-up boy scout.
Mr. Mueller is taken seriously as Mr. Clean Marine, a Republican willing to stand on principle even against other Republicans.
Mr. Mueller is vigorously investigating the Trump campaign.
Mr. Mueller has a spreading net that will ensnare the guilty.
Mr. Mueller is not in search of a conjurer but a culprit, and he’ll shine a light in every dark corner.
Robert Mueller is circling this White House like a hawk preparing to descend on a chicken coop.
Mr. Mueller has a hide thick enough to protect him from these attacks.
Mr. Mueller is carefully cultivating a rare reputation for independence and fairness.
Mr. Mueller counts patience, humility and honesty as the virtues he lives by.
Mr. Mueller is surely aware of additional evidence, of aggravating or mitigating facts, that the public does not know.
[Trump] has never faced questioning from someone like Mr. Mueller , a veteran prosecutor and former FBI director who has a dozen experienced litigators behind him.
Mr. Mueller ’s team will be well prepared to ask the president about his own knowledge and involvement.
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” Mr. Trump said of talking to Mr . Mueller .
Mueller used to tell his colleagues at the Justice Department, “If you live by the press, you die by the press.”
