Merited a place in TIME magazine's ''The 100 Most Influential People'' (leaders) with an homage penned by former U.S. District Attorney for New York Preet Bharara [April 2018].
Served as United States Attorney in San Francisco from 1998 to 2001. He
then served as Acting Deputy Attorney General of the United States
Department of Justice for several months.
Served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps for three years,
including one year in the Third Marine Division, Vietnam. He received
the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart and the
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
Bachelor of Arts, 1966, Princeton University; Master's degree in
International Studies, New York University; Juris Doctor degree, 1973,
University of Virginia School of Law.
Supervised the prosecutions of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and mafioso
John Gotti and the investigation into the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103,
which was blown apart by explosives as it flew over Lockerbie,
Scotland, on December 21, 1988.
He became the 6th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on
September 4, 2001, a week before the September 11 terrorist attacks.
His first cousin is actor Girard Swan. (James Girard Swan Mueller).
Was a classmate of former Massachusetts Senator John Kerry at St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire) in 1962.