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Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI di­rec­tor who trans­formed the na­tion’s pre­mier law en­force­ment agency in­to a ter­ror­ism-fight­ing force af­ter the Sept. 11, 2001, at­tacks and who lat­er be­came spe­cial coun­sel in charge of in­ves­ti­gat­ing ties be­tween Rus­sia and Don­ald Trump’s pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, has died. He was 81.

“With deep sad­ness, we are shar­ing the news that Bob passed away” on Fri­day night, his fam­i­ly said in a state­ment Sat­ur­day. “His fam­i­ly asks that their pri­va­cy be re­spect­ed.”

At the FBI, Mueller set about al­most im­me­di­ate­ly over­haul­ing the bu­reau’s mis­sion to meet the law en­force­ment needs of the 21st cen­tu­ry, be­gin­ning his 12-year tenure just one week be­fore the Sept. 11 at­tacks and serv­ing across pres­i­dents of both po­lit­i­cal par­ties. He was nom­i­nat­ed by Re­pub­li­can Pres­i­dent George W. Bush.