quotes: In 1993, with the inauguration of Mr. Clinton, Mr. Mueller left the Justice Department to become a partner at Hale & Dorr, now WilmerHale, one of the nation’s most elite law firms. And then, in 1995, at 50, he made a move that astonished his peers.
He telephoned the chief federal prosecutor in Washington, Eric H. Holder Jr., later Mr. Obama’s attorney general. Mr. Mueller had been several rungs above Mr. Holder at the Justice Department barely two years before. Mr. Holder recalled the moment at Mr. Mueller’s F.B.I. retirement ceremony.
“One day he called me — out of the blue — and asked if I could use a homicide prosecutor in my office,” Mr. Holder said. “Our nation’s capital was a city in great distress — we were called the murder capital of the United States.”
Mr. Holder told him that “he might be a little overqualified for a job as a line prosecutor. But before he could change his mind, I just said, ‘When can you start?’”
Over the course of three years, Mr. Mueller successfully prosecuted dozens of killers, helped bring down the homicide rate and showed grace in comforting survivors.
He also answered his own telephone: “Mueller, homicide.”