Robert Mueller, 3 top aides to head course on Trump-Russia Special Counsel probe

The University of Virginia Wednesday announced that the former US special counsel Robert Mueller will conduct a class related to the infamous inquiry led by him on ex-President Donald Trump and Russia’s collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign. The class will also include other senior Staff members Including deputy special counsel and former federal prosecutor at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Aaron Zebley, who was a top aide on Mueller's team, reports suggest.

Mueller testified in his April 2019 report about the kremlin's election interference at the Department of Justice in Washington. Mueller investigation has been widely taught by political science professors as capstone courses that delved into the major topics raised in Mueller’s work across the law school curriculum.

The course will be titled "The Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel” and will be held over six sessions in the fall semester. It will be joined by at least three former top aides on Mueller’s team. Jim Quarles, who was senior counsel to Mueller, and Andrew Goldstein, who was senior assistant special counsel, will also participate in the course supported by uni’s Karsh Center for Law and Democracy. Instructors will give a discourse on the legal and practical context of the investigation, Justice Department and Congress relations, investigative actions by White House, and will walk through the trade-offs and political obstructions during the legal inquiry. 

"I was fortunate to attend UVA Law School after the Marine Corps, and I'm fortunate to be returning there now," Mueller said in a statement he issued June 2. He noted, that he will lead at least one class. "I look forward to engaging with the students this fall,” he said.

The uni announced that the special course will focus on "a key set of decisions made during the special counsel's investigation," starting with Mueller's appointment as special counsel and ending with a focus on "obstruction of justice, presidential accountability and the role of special counsel in that accountability.”

448-page report led to indictments 

Mueller, who also served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013, was designated to his role as a special counsel in May 2017. In his 448-page report, he alleged that former President Trump’s campaign figures were compromised by the Russian government as they coordinated with Kremlin that exercised influence on Trump’s election campaign. He outlined 10 instances where the former president attempted to impede the probe.

Mueller report fell short of exonerating the former president, who, when no evidence was found, continually called Mueller probe a “witch hunt”. It did, however, lead to the indictments of more than 30 officials basis the thousands of emails Mueller obtained as evidence linked to the Trump transition team. The special counsel investigation expanded to examine if the ex-US president was obstructing justice following his abrupt dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey on May 9, 2017.