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RObert Swan Mueller III wears a $ 35 Casio watch with the face on the inside of the left wrist, like an infantryman trying to avoid revealing his position with a burst of sunshine on the glass.
Covert and cautious, Mueller is still discreet in Washington DC, 50 years after being shot in Vietnam as the US Marine's first lieutenant.
For 18 months, the former director of the FBI is at the center of the coming storm that may occur over Donald Trump's White House.
During an exhausting period of perpetual leaks through central Washington, the office of Special Advisor Mueller is distinguished, apparently impervious and watertight.
Although Mueller cast a shadow on Trump for 18 months now, he has remained almost silent since his retirement, while he was a special advisor charged with leading the FBI's investigation into the interference of the Russia in the 2016 US election and on and / or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with President Donald Trump's campaign ".
Mueller's silence led to a thorough examination of his personal appearance – this watch, his steel hair spread to the left with scrupulous precision, his Brooks Brothers striped suits, his white oxford button-down shirts, always associated with ties with a dull geometric print. A study in methodical prudence.
Robert De Niro played it with a predictable threat to Saturday Night Live, portraying himself as a predator of the worst nightmare of each shady character.
Of course, Trump talked a lot about Mueller – he denounced his work as a "hunt witch" in capital letters, calling him "highly conflictual" and declaring last week that his team was not only "a disgrace to our nation. but had become "absolutely crazy".
In an attempt to discredit Mueller, Trump hinted that the Republican for life is a staunch supporter of Barack Obama. In fact, since the 1980s, Mueller has been appointed to the post of prosecutor and investigator by five consecutive presidents, one of them, Reagan, and two others, Bush.
As director of the FBI, he was bequeathed to Obama. He was so admired that when the mandate of his 10-year term was reached, the Senate voted 100 to 100 to amend the law so that he could remain in office for two more years.
Garrett Graff, author of The Matrix of Threat: Inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the War on Global Terror, interviewed Mueller for about 12 hours for the 2011 book. "It's probably the most direct arrow in America, very respectful of rules, very professional."
The word integrity seems to be almost sewn into the fabric of his striped suits. "That is why [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein has brought him to play this role as a special advocate, Graff said, because he's probably the only person in Washington with whom one can never blame for having a program supporter. He always saw things with a very strong moral compass, instilled in him. by his father and really sees the world with a pretty black and white vision, good or wrong. "
After a period of self-imposed public inactivity in mid-term elections in November, the investigation faces a new urgency.
Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and installed Matthew Whitaker, a political ally many feared to see Mueller shut down; Trump is surrounded by lawyers and has submitted his written answers to questions from the Mueller team about possible collusion between his campaign and Russia. Paul Manafort, the former Trump-recognized campaign president, is cooperating with the special council and could be unveiled by November 26 as a star witness in a new criminal case targeting Trump's world. Could Donald Trump Jr or Trump's longtime assistant, Roger Stone, be the following?
Yet as rage, speculation and tension mount, Mueller keeps his profile low.
Born in privilege, wrought in battle
Like Donald Trump, Robert Mueller was born from a privilege tied to the money and privileges of the East Coast. He is the son of a senior executive of DuPont's industrial conglomerate. He was educated in an all-male school where he excelled in sports, from lacrosse to football.
But their paths really diverged in the Vietnam era.
Trump, 22 months younger than Mueller, was expelled for medical reasons because of his "bony feet" in the foot and continued a life devoted to personal gain.
Mueller began a life of public service. He graduated from Princeton in 1966 and is registered with the US Marines.
Mueller reached Vietnam at the end of 1968, the bloodiest year of the war. As a 24-year-old second lieutenant, he found himself at the head of an infantry company that was part of a marine regiment dubbed the Magnificent Bastards.
Graff recently reconstructed Mueller's unpublished story for Wired magazine after contacting 140 members of the unit and explaining how Mueller was decorated for his courage after rescuing wounded naval soldiers under heavy fire.
The commendation of Mueller's Bronze Star reads: "The courage, the aggressive initiative and the unwavering dedication of Sub-Lieutenant Mueller at his peril were decisive in the defeat of the enemy force".
A few months later, after being promoted to first lieutenant, Mueller was engaged in close combat. Graff wrote, "The fire that went down was so intense – the stress of the moment is so intense, the adrenaline is so intense – that when he was shot, Mueller did not immediately notice . In the middle of the fighting, he looked down and realized that an AK-47 round had been cleaned through his thigh.
"Mueller continued to fight."
Mueller has spoken only once in public since taking office in the Russian investigation. In May 2017, 12 days after accepting the special advisory role, he delivered the opening address at the Tabor Academy, where his granddaughter was one of the graduate students.
He talked about the service lessons he had learned from his family, from the navy corps and the FBI family.
Perhaps unintentionally positioning himself as the opposite of Donald Trump, Mueller urged students to act with integrity and honesty.
"You can be smart, aggressive, articulate, even persuasive, but if you're not honest, your reputation will suffer, and once lost, a good reputation can never, never be found."
Mueller returned from the war, went to law school, became a federal prosecutor and rose through the ranks to become head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
As Acting Attorney General, he was responsible for the investigation and indictment of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the terrorist attack that provoked the theft. Pan Am over Lockerbie in Scotland just before Christmas 1988.
In 1993, Mueller left the Department of Justice for a private practice, but returned after two years, effectively returning to Washington DC.
In the space of six years, George W Bush had appointed him to head the FBI. A week after taking office, the attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington occurred. Mueller had to replace the FBI, which was a national law enforcement agency, with an international intelligence agency whose first task was to prevent the next attack.
While he is lionized, Mueller has flaws and acknowledged mistakes. In a lengthy interview on stage in 2015 with journalist Aaron Harber, he spoke about his failure in delegation of authority and admitted to micromanaging the FBI's counterterrorism operations. He also admitted to losing control of the FBI's computer system modernization, which was behind schedule and exceeded the allocated budget.
"When you look at the criticisms he faced as an FBI director, his strength was the same as his weakness, he was tough at the wheel and could not have a lot of dissent or dissension," said Graff. "It will debate decisions, but once the decision is made, it will go further. You can see that there has never been, at the FBI, a warm and fuzzy leader. "
Tomorrow: the investigation on Russia
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