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Maddow rebukes Robert Mueller’s legacy as 'wildly outmaneuvered' following his death at 81
By Hanna Panreck
Published March 22, 2026
MS NOW host Rachel Maddow said Saturday that former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who died Saturday, was "wildly outmaneuvered" by former Attorney General Bill Barr, and that the handling of the Mueller report would weigh heavily on his legacy.
"There’s a reason on a day like this, we need to remind people what was in Mueller’s report — what were the results of his investigation, and that’s because of a failure on his part," Maddow said during "The Weekend Primetime."
"That is because once his investigation and his report were concluded, he was just wildly outmaneuvered by a really serpentine attorney general named Bill Barr, who played really dirty pool when it came to the handling and release of the information from Mueller’s investigation," Maddow continued.
Mueller died Saturday at the age of 81. He led the FBI from 2001 to 2013 and later served as special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, a probe that overshadowed much of President Donald Trump’s first term.
Rachel Maddow and former FBI Director Robert Mueller (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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Maddow called out what she described as the "bureaucratic failure" of Mueller not being able to outmaneuver Barr, as he was "outmaneuvering" him.
"And that bureaucratic failure is the most important thing in American history about the Mueller report, not his findings, but the way they were submarined by a — in my opinion — disreputable, dishonorable set of actions by the attorney general who handled the release of that report," she said.
She also described the former FBI director's death as an "end of an era."
Robert Mueller, then-FBI director, speaks during a news conference at bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2008. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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"There aren't many people for whom I would say this, but it is the end of an era. Robert Mueller is the last in a line of people that I don't think we'll ever see the likes of again," she said.
Mueller brought charges against multiple Trump associates during the Russia investigation, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
His final report detailed extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian individuals but did not establish a criminal conspiracy.
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Rachel Maddow speaks during her MSNBC show on Feb. 25, 2025. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
Mueller declined to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, citing long-standing Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president.
Maddow dedicated much of the first two years of Trump's first term to coverage of the Russian collusion narrative.
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In response to Mueller's death, Trump posted on Truth Social, saying, "Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!"
https://www.foxnews.com/media/maddow-rebukes-robert-muellers-legacy-wildly-outmaneuvered-following-his-death-81