Top Trump official defends president for celebrating Robert Mueller’s death

Trump celebrates Mueller death: Top aide defends president after FBI chief memorial backlash

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

A senior Donald Trump aide rejected bipartisan criticism on Wednesday after the former president marked ex-FBI director Robert Mueller’s death with a celebratory social-media post.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Mueller’s passing meant “the Witch Hunt truly dies with him,” drawing immediate condemnation from lawmakers and veterans.

The post ended 24 hours of muted reaction from Trump world to Sunday’s announcement that Mueller, 79, had died from complications of cancer at a Washington hospital.

White House communications director Steven Cheung told reporters the president “responded as any citizen would after enduring years of politically motivated investigations.”

Trump fired Mueller in May 2017 after the former Marine officer refused to pledge loyalty during an Oval Office meeting, according to aides who later testified to Congress.

The dismissal triggered the appointment of special counsel Robert Hur, whose 448-page report detailed 11 episodes of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski called Trump’s comment “unbecoming of anyone who has held our nation’s highest office,” in a statement released by her Alaska office.

Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries demanded an apology, telling reporters at the Capitol that “celebrating a public servant’s death debases the presidency itself.”

Mueller served 12 years as FBI director under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, winning praise from both parties for transforming the bureau after the September 11 attacks.

He oversaw high-profile investigations including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack, securing convictions in both cases.

The former Marine platoon leader also served as acting attorney general during the Watergate scandal, earning a reputation for independence that spanned five decades.

Current FBI director Kash Patel called Mueller “a dedicated law-enforcement professional” in an internal email to staff that made no mention of Trump’s remarks.

Veterans groups expressed particular anger at the celebration of a fellow Marine’s death, with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America demanding the post be removed.

Paul Rieckhoff, the group’s founder, told MSNBC that Mueller “bled for this country in Vietnam while the former president avoided service with bone spurs.”

Trump obtained five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, including one for bone spurs diagnosed by a Queens podiatrist whose daughter later told the New York Times the ailment was granted as a favor to Trump’s father.

The president’s Truth Social account has 7.3 million followers, far fewer than the 88 million he commanded on Twitter before his January 2021 ban following the Capitol riot.

His Mueller post generated 1.2 million interactions within six hours, according to data from social-media analytics firm CrowdTangle, making it his most-engaged content of the week.

Political analysts noted the timing, coming as Trump seeks to consolidate Republican support ahead of potential 2028 primary challenges from governors Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin.

The former president faces 88 felony counts across four criminal cases, though none directly relate to Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

Prosecutors in the classified-documents case have signaled they may introduce Trump’s attacks on Mueller as evidence of intent to obstruct government proceedings.

Defense attorney John Lauro declined to comment on whether the Truth Social posts could complicate the legal strategy, citing ongoing gag-order proceedings in federal court.

Background

Robert Swan Mueller III led the FBI from September 2001 to September 2013, the longest tenure since J. Edgar Hoover and the only director to win congressional approval for a two-year extension beyond the statutory 10-year limit.

His 2017 appointment as special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein followed Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, an event the president later told NBC’s Lester Holt was linked to “this Russia thing.”

The 22-month investigation secured convictions or guilty pleas from 34 individuals and 3 companies, including Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Mueller’s final report found insufficient evidence to charge Trump campaign officials with criminal conspiracy but detailed multiple attempts to derail the probe, stating that Congress could weigh obstruction allegations.

Attorney General William Barr subsequently declared the evidence insufficient to accuse the president of obstruction, a conclusion Mueller privately complained misrepresented his findings in a March 2019 letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump subsequently claimed “total exoneration” and spent the remainder of his term attacking Mueller as conflicted, though he never produced evidence of the alleged bias.

What’s Next

The White House gave no indication Trump would delete or amend his post, with aides telling reporters they expected the controversy to fade as attention turns to upcoming Supreme Court arguments on presidential immunity scheduled for April 22.

Funeral services for Mueller will be held Friday at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, according to a family spokesperson who said the service remains open to the public.

The episode will likely resurface during next month’s House oversight hearing where Patel is scheduled to testify about FBI operational matters, giving Democrats a platform to demand condemnation of Trump’s remarks.