The Justice Department will appoint former FBI Director Robert Mueller to be special counsel of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, NBC News reported.
The appointment was made by Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General. Mueller resigned from his job at a private law firm to take the new job, the Justice Department said.
Robert Mueller became FBI director on Sept. 4, 2001 and led the FBI through the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. A Vietnam veteran who served in the Marine Corps, he was U.S. Attorney in San Francisco for three years before President George W. Bush named him to lead the FBI. He stepped down in 2013.
Mueller's appointment comes amid a growing Democratic outcry for someone outside the Justice Department to handle the politically charged investigation.
It comes a day after reports that fired FBI Director James Comey penned a memo saying Trump asked him to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The White House has denied the memo's account of the February meeting.
