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Court Restrains Parties In Ex-Gov’s Estate Dispute, Orders Accelerated Hearing

An Oyo State High Court in Ibadan has granted an interlocutory injunction restraining parties in the ongoing dispute over the estate of the late former governor of Oyo State, Christopher Alao-Akala, from selling, disposing of, or entering into any form of transaction on the contested properties pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The order followed an application filed by Oluwatoyin Alao Aderinto, who approached the court as claimant/applicant in Suit No. I/443/2024, seeking judicial intervention over the administration of the estate of the deceased politician.

Joined as defendants/respondents in the suit are Oluwakemi Alao-Akala and Olamide Alabi, listed in the court processes as executors and administrators of the estate of the late former governor.

Ruling on the motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction, the court granted the relief sought by the claimant, thereby restraining the defendants, their agents, servants, assigns, privies or any person acting through them from selling or continuing to sell, disposing of, or entering into joint venture agreements in respect of properties belonging to the late Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala pending the determination of the substantive suit before the court.

The application was brought pursuant to Order 48, Rules 4 and 6, and Order 49 of the High Court of Oyo State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2022, as well as under the inherent jurisdiction of the court.

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In granting the application, the court also ordered accelerated hearing of the case in order to ensure speedy dispensation of the matter.

The claimant had told the court that she has a legal and equitable interest in the estate and properties of the late politician, being his first daughter.

She further alleged that some assets belonging to the estate had been sold without her consent, agreement or knowledge, while steps were allegedly being taken to dispose of other properties or enter into joint venture arrangements involving assets of the deceased.

According to the application, the claimant argued that there was an urgent need for the court to halt further transactions relating to the properties in order to protect her rights, interests and entitlements in the estate.

The claimant also contended that failure to grant the injunction could result in continued sale or disposal of the assets, which she said might cause irreversible damage to her interest in the estate of the late former governor.

With the interlocutory injunction now in force and accelerated hearing ordered by the court, further proceedings in the case are expected to focus on the substantive issues surrounding the administration and ownership of properties forming part of the late politician’s estate.

Meanwhile, during proceedings in the matter, an additional application seeking that DNA tests be conducted among the siblings connected to the dispute was also moved before the court.

Following arguments on the application, the court adjourned the matter to April 16, 2026, for ruling on the request for DNA testing.

‘If Liverpool play like that at PSG it could be 10-0’

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Aadam Patel

Football reporter at Amex Stadium
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When Liverpool came to Brighton last May, the away end was in party mode at the full-time whistle despite the defeat as they sang and celebrated with inflatables and balloons.

By then, Arne Slot’s side had won the Premier League title and a trip to the south coast was another excuse to enjoy themselves. And rightly so.

Ten months on, Liverpool tasted defeat against Fabian Hurzeler’s side again but this time the away end was half empty by the time Slot made his way over to the travelling supporters.

Their latest defeat is the 10th in the league this season, making it only the seventh time the reigning Premier League champions have lost 10 or more games during their title defence.

Since starting the campaign with five wins on the trot, Slot’s side have won just nine of their next 26 games in the league. With that kind of form, Liverpool do not look like a team that has it in them to qualify for the Champions League.

It is all but certain that the Premier League will get an extra place in the Champions League and Liverpool currently occupy that fifth spot, though they have a game in hand on sixth-placed Chelsea who play later on Saturday.

Much had been made in the build-up about the 62 hours Liverpool had to prepare between their Champions League win over Galatasaray at Anfield and this trip to Brighton.

With Alisson and Mohamed Salah forced out with injuries, Liverpool’s situation worsened when striker Hugo Ekitike was forced off early on.

“What went wrong started off with the lead up to this game,” Slot said.

“As so many times has happened this season, when we played a very good game [against Galatasaray] and we thought we could bring that level to the next game, or even better, we had Mo Salah injured, we had Alisson injured and, after two minutes, Hugo Ekitike out.

“That has happened to us so many times this season and what happened to us a lot this season is that the first chance of the other team immediately went in.

“But in the second half Brighton were the better team and deserved to win.”

Slot was the first to say that his side deserved to lose here and it would hardly have surprised him. Of their 10 Premier League games this season following a Champions League fixture, Liverpool have lost five of them.

Questions have to be asked about fitness and, despite spending £450m in the summer, Liverpool lack proper squad depth.

“It makes complete sense if you win the league last season and you spent £450m that the expectations are high, and those expectations were high for the pundits, for the media, for me, for the fans,” said Slot.

“At our club we’re also looking at the situation and the challenge we had during this season, and then we might be a bit more realistic [about] why the season has gone why it is gone.

‘A backwards step for Liverpool’

Liverpool’s only goal at the Amex came from a Brighton mistake and, even after going behind again in the second half, Slot said that the Seagulls were more likely to make it 3-1 rather than his side earning a draw.

“This is a backwards step for Liverpool,” said former Premier League goalkeeper Rob Green on 5 Live. “You just don’t know what you are getting from this team. The spine of the team is not there. They are looking around saying ‘what’s going on?’. They can’t find an answer.”

As ever, it would be hard to pin the blame entirely on the manager but, ultimately, it is his team that are regularly underperforming.

For a man who has always emphasised his desire to play good football, he cannot have enjoyed what he has seen for bulks of this season.

Liverpool were superb in midweek against Galatasaray but have been woeful in their past three Premier League games picking up just one point against Wolves, Tottenham and Brighton.

Those 62 hours between Galatasaray and Brighton are gone and it is now about the next fortnight, where most of the Liverpool players will be on international duty. Slot will know that it may well go a long way to defining his future.

“Let’s hope the national team coaches help us out by not playing 180 minutes over two games,” he pleaded on Match of The Day.

When they come back, Liverpool travel to Manchester City for their FA Cup quarter-final against Pep Guardiola’s side before a trip to Paris to take on Paris St-Germain in the same stage of the Champions League. The return leg at Anfield is six days later.

“If they go and play like that in Paris it could be 10-0,” said former Liverpool left-back Stephen Warnock on 5 Live.

“That’s how bad Liverpool were today. Brighton weren’t clinical and tried to walk it in, but PSG will be clinical. It’s very, very worrying for Liverpool”

With seven top-flight games left, Liverpool’s tally of 10 Premier League defeats this season is already their most since 2015-16.

When BBC Sport asked Slot if it was a worry that his side is making the wrong kind of records, he responded: “Of course. It says a few things.

“First of all, it says what a great team Liverpool have had in the last 10 years and a great manager as well. I could come and tell you all the reasons why we’ve lost this season 10 times.

“One of them is late goals. Today sums it all up in terms of our injury problems – to go without three great goalscorers [Ekitike, Isak and Salah] is never helpful for any team.

“But it’s not my job to make excuses. My job is to find answers and that’s what I tried to do again today.

Slot has already conceded that it would be unacceptable if Liverpool are not playing Champions League football next season, even if he stays in the job.

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Eid without toys: Israeli restrictions drive up prices in Gaza

Gaza City – In front of a toy stall in Gaza City’s central al-Rimal market, Rania al-Saudi stands with her two young daughters, looking bewildered at the unusually high prices of toys.

Al-Saudi had promised her daughters she would buy them two dolls to celebrate Eid, but the exorbitant toy prices mean she simply can’t afford them.

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Her elder daughter, six-year-old Razan, didn’t understand her mother’s worried expressions as Rania asked the vendor for the price of each toy. With every price, Rania gasped and said, “Oh my God, it’s so expensive… this used to be much cheaper.”

Faced with her daughter’s insistence, Rania pleaded with the vendor to lower the prices, but he apologised, saying he could not because getting hold of toys to sell was incredibly difficult, considering Israeli restrictions on importing items into Gaza.

Rania was not alone. Other parents and children repeatedly came to the vendor’s stall to ask about toys, but not one of them made a purchase. In Gaza’s current war-driven economic crisis, the prices are simply unaffordable.

Rania, 43, is originally from Shujayea in eastern Gaza, but has been displaced by the war to the west of the city. She told Al Jazeera that she came looking for toys in an attempt to put smiles on her daughters’ faces before the holiday, but her wish was not fulfilled.

“The prices are extremely high, and the vendors tell us that toys have not entered Gaza since the start of the war. But what did our children do to deserve this?”

Rania recalled the many toys her daughters had in their home before it was destroyed, and how she used to make sure they had toys for every occasion and every holiday.

“Eid holidays are for children’s joy, and children are happy with toys and entertainment. But our children are deprived of everything.”

While speaking to Al Jazeera, Rania tried to calm her daughter Lulwa, who had begun to cry after realising from her mother’s words that she would not get the doll she wanted.

“This doll used to cost no more than 15 shekels ($5) before the war; now it costs 60 shekels ($20),” she said to Al Jazeera, frustrated. “This is something I cannot afford. Everything is expensive and overpriced.”

Rania’s voice grew heavier as she explained that she was unable to even buy new Eid clothes for her daughters – a tradition across the Muslim world – due to the high prices.

“My daughters will not be happy this Eid. I wanted to compensate by getting them dolls, but even that is impossible.”

Toys have been in short supply during the war, which began in October 2023, with bombing and displacement meaning that most children either had their toys destroyed, lost, or left behind. Rania says that her children have been bored, and have had to develop their own ways of playing.

“All the children in the camp face the same situation, so they spend their time playing simple street games like hopscotch, hide-and-seek, or drawing in the sand,” she said.

“But my daughters always wished for a doll. I once tried to make one for them, but they didn’t like it.”

A toy stall in Gaza
Israel restricts the entry of many non-essential goods into Gaza, including toys [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Rising prices and market impact

Toy sellers say they are not to blame for the high prices.

Anwar al-Huwaity has been in the business for 20 years. He told Al Jazeera that his stall is still operating despite Israel’s devastation of Gaza, but that business has become extremely difficult.

“Before the war, toys were widely available,” Anwar said. “Today, we go from one trader to another, searching. Sometimes we find toys with someone who had them stored, but they sell it at a very high price, up to three times its normal price.”

He added that most toys that now reach Gaza do not enter through official crossings, but in limited quantities via unofficial routes, making them very difficult to obtain.

The cost of bringing toys into Gaza has become extremely high. Anwar said some middlemen demand up to 12,000 shekels ($3,870) for a small shipment, and if it is confiscated or destroyed, the loss falls entirely on the trader.

“We buy merchandise at high prices, so we have to sell it at high prices as well,” Anwar said apologetically.

Anwar said that toys were now up to 300 percent more expensive compared to pre-war prices. The holiday season, the main income generator for toy sellers, used to bring in between $6,500 and $10,000, he explained. Now, he’d be lucky to sell $1,000 of stock – and most of that is bulk sales to other traders, rather than regular customers.

Anwar may be a businessman, but he shared that the hardest part of his job was seeing children ask for toys that their parents cannot afford.

“Many parents can’t buy toys due to the economic situation. People are barely able to secure food,” he said.

Anwar’s job has gone from providing children joy, to seeing them disappointed.

“I have started hating my workday because I know the prices are exorbitant, and when the children and families see the toys, they get upset, especially during the holidays.”

“People come to buy toys and beg me to lower the price,” he said. “They say, ‘This child is an orphan, that child is an orphan … his parents were killed in the war’. It feels like all children in Gaza have become orphans.”

A toy seller in Gaza
Toy sellers say they are forced to pass on high prices to customers [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Restrictions on recreational goods during the Gaza war

Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, trade has been heavily restricted due to the closure of commercial crossings by Israel, especially Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the main entry point for goods into Gaza from Israel.

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in 2023, and again for several months in 2025, leading to the declaration of a famine in northern Gaza.

Conditions have improved since a “ceasefire” was declared in October, but Israel is continuing regular strikes – and continuing to heavily restrict the entry of non-essential commercial goods, including toys and recreational materials.

Although no official law or declaration explicitly bans toys from entering Gaza, administrative and security restrictions, combined with the prioritisation of humanitarian goods, have effectively made entry of these items almost impossible.

The United Nations has noted that restrictions on commercial goods, including toys, have affected the availability of both essential and non-essential goods in Gaza.

Near Anwar’s toy stall is another run by Ahmed Ziara. The 24-year-old has been selling toys for several years, but the war has forced him to periodically stop trading.

“Before the war, I worked in major toy exhibitions,” Ahmed explained. “Now toys rarely enter, and we often have to smuggle them, sometimes hidden inside clothes or other goods.”

Ahmed confirmed that most of the toys he acquires are old stock already in Gaza, sold at high prices due to scarcity.

He mentioned that popular Eid holiday toys, which were once inexpensive, now cost triple or even quadruple their previous prices: a small toy car that sold for 40 shekels ($13) last year now costs 150 shekels ($48), a small ball that once cost 3 shekels ($1) is now 30 shekels ($10), building blocks are nearly unavailable, and dolls cost more than 70 shekels ($22.50).

“Buying from traders is hard, and selling is hard due to the economic situation,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

“Sometimes I have to sell below the expected price just to clear stock, but most of the time we must raise prices due to high costs and difficulty obtaining toys.”

“If conditions improve and toys are allowed in normally, prices will return to normal, and children and families will be able to enjoy the holiday as before,” he said.

Flash flooding swamps Hawaii, prompting evacuation orders for 5,500 people

Heavy rains have prompted widespread evacuations on the north shore of the island of Oahu, as the state of Hawaii experiences its worst flooding in 20 years.

Early Saturday morning, Oahu’s Department of Emergency Management issued dire warnings for residents in communities like Waialua, part of the United States.

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“Residents in the Waialua area are strongly urged to LEAVE NOW,” one message overnight read. “The remaining access road out of Waialua is at high risk of failure if rainfall continues.”

Already, evacuation orders are in effect for nearly 5,500 people in the region north of the state capital, Honolulu.

No deaths have been reported so far, but at least 200 people have been rescued as muddy, brown floodwaters engulfed streets and neighbourhoods. Ten people have been hospitalised with hypothermia after being plucked from the storm waters.

A youth camp run by the organisation Our Lady of Kea’au was also evacuated, and 72 adults and children were airlifted from the site as a precaution, according to officials.

A view of a storm-damaged home near floating felled branches in flood waters caused by severe rains in Waialua, Hawaii, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin)
Floodwaters destroy a home and topple trees in Waialua, Hawaii, on March 20 [Mengshin Lin/AP Photo]

More rain is expected to bear down on the Hawaiian islands over the coming days.

Governor Josh Green estimated that the damage could exceed $1bn in costs, and he described the floodwaters in some areas as “chest-level”.

“We’ve evacuated the whole region now,” Green said in a video statement on Friday. He emphasised that the Hawaii National Guard was out in force to help with emergency efforts.

“I’ve mobilised even more military reserves, and we have the troops coming in from Schofield [a military base] to help. The coastguard will be out there to do search and rescue if, God forbid, any of our loved ones have been washed away with housing.”

Of particular concern is the 120-year-old Wahiawa dam, which officials warned was “at risk of imminent failure”.

A 2022 document from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources identified the Wahiawa structure as “a high hazard potential dam, as a failure of the dam will result in probable loss of human life”.

Built in 1906 and reconstructed following a collapse in 1921, the dam was designed to increase local sugar production.

It was eventually acquired by the Dole Food Company, which has received four notices since 2009 about the dam’s deficiencies.

In April 2021, the food giant was fined $20,000 for failing to safely maintain the dam and its spillway. Experts at the time warned the dam might not be able to safely handle flooding, though representatives for Dole refuted the assessment.

“The dam continues to operate as designed with no indications of damage,” Dole said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The state of Hawaii passed a law in 2023 to acquire the dam, but the transfer is not yet complete.

On Friday, water levels at the earthen dam rose from 24 to 25.6 metres (79 to 84 feet), just 1.8 metres (6 feet) below its capacity.

CORRECTS LOCATION TO HALEIWA, NOT WAIALUA - Floodwaters in Haleiwa, Hawaii, on Friday morning, March 20, 2026. (Craig Fujii/Honolulu Civil Beat via AP)
Floodwaters in Haleiwa, Hawaii, submerge homes and roadways on March 20, 2026 [Craig Fujii/Honolulu Civil Beat via AP Photo]

The rising waters ravaging the state are considered some of the worst since the 2004 floods in Manoa, a neighbourhood of Honolulu.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi estimated that hundreds of homes have been affected by the floodwaters, but that the full scope of the damage has yet to be assessed. He added that Oahu is expected to receive an additional 15 to 20cm – 6 to 8 inches – of rain over the next few days.

Tanginoa scores four as Wire hammer sorry Castleford

Stuart Brennan

BBC Sport England
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Betfred Super League

Warrington (32) 72

Tries: Ashton 3, Currie 2, Tanginoa 4, Hopoate, Stone, Harrison Goals: Irwin 12

Castleford (6) 6

Kelepi Tanginoa scored four tries as rampant Warrington Wolves thrashed Castleford Tigers to keep their 100% Super League record intact.

The big Australian forward had previously not scored a hat-trick in his senior career, and his quadruple came after Matty Ashton marked his return from a long-term injury lay-off with the first two tries before completing his own hat-trick late in the game.

Wolves were irresistible at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as Ben Currie (two), Albert Hopoate, Sam Stone and James Harrison also went over and 18-year-old half-back Ewan Irwin, preferred to veteran Marc Sneyd, kicked 12 out of 14 attempts.

    • 14 minutes ago

Much has been made of the competitive nature of Super League this season, but this was an old-fashioned, one-sided thrashing from start to finish, as Wolves completed their first 36 sets and threw in some moments of real flair.

Cas, who lost Jack Ashworth and Joe Stimson for head injury assessments in the first few minutes – with Stimson staying off for the rest of the game, could not cope with Wire’s ruck speed and pace out wide.

Ashton, out for 10 months after damaging anterior cruciate ligaments, added to Irwin’s two penalties with two tries inside 15 minutes, leaving Cas wing Mikaele Ravalawa standing for the second.

That left side of the Wire attack was running riot and when the Tigers over-compensated it left Currie with space to go over underneath the posts before Semi Valemei showed a good leap and some strength to score the visitors’ only try.

Tanginoa, who won three trophies with Hull KR last season, completed his hat-trick three minutes after half-time before Hopoate sprinted 60 metres for another.

Currie raced clear to pile on the misery for Cas, and Tanginoa made it four tries for himself, arriving like a thunderbolt onto Williams’ pass after a sublime offload from Jordan Crowther.

The sin-binning of Toby King made no difference to Wolves as Josh Thewlis’ break set up Stone for another try while they were down to 12 men.

And, after King returned, Harrison grabbed his first try of the season and Ashton completed his own triumphant return with his third after showing good dribbling skills.

‘A very polished performance’ – reaction

Warrington coach Sam Burgess told BBC Sport:

“It was very clean. Firstly, I liked our physicality early in the game. We were physical when we needed to be and kept hold of the ball – I don’t think we made an error until late in the game so it made it very hard for Castleford.

“The ball bounced our way, we had a few calls so it just fell in our lap. You have those days so we’ll take them but it was a very polished performance and I’m happy with it.

“At half-time we challenged them as we thought they might be complacent and take our foot off the gas but we were very consistent with who we want to be. Today was a good step forward for us as a group.

“Kelepi was nice for us and George [Williams] prefers playing on the left and Ewan [Irwin] slots on the right so the balance of the team was nice, and the control.”

Castleford coach Ryan Carr told BBC Sport:

“It was horrible, not good enough. They played really well, we played really poorly, and that sums it up.

“There are no excuses for it. It hurts you, losing middles to head knocks, but at the end of the day we didn’t make the decision to go out, put our bodies on the line and go after it.

“We’re not going to skim over it. We’re going to have a good look at ourselves. I feel like we have been competing in the last few games but it’s a disappointing day for us.

“It’s embarrassing and not good enough. I feel sorry for our members and our fans and we have to make sure that we fix it.

“The tries they scored were things we had talked about all week, that we’d worked hard on, specific drills to combat what they’re good at, because they’re a good footy team.

Warrington: Josh Thewlis; J. Smith, King, Hopoate, Ashton; Williams, Irwin; Yates, Walker, Byrne, Stone, Tanginoa, Currie.

Interchanges: Harrison, Crowther, Philbin, Webster.

Sin-bin: King (60)

Castleford: Cini; Ravalawa, McIntosh, Valemei, Qareqare; Asi, Weaver; Greacen, Lawler, Ashworth, Lane, Hirst, Stimson.

Interchanges: Doolan, Hall, Atoni, Beckett.

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Former FBI chief, Robert Mueller, dead at 81

Robert Mueller, a former special counsel and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, has died at age 81.

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

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Former President George Bush, a Republican, appointed Mueller to helm the FBI in 2001, a week before the attacks on September 11, 2001, took place.

The 9/11 attacks would push him into the centre of a national crisis, and he made strides in reforming the FBI, increasing the number of specialised agents and consolidating its counterterrorism and intelligence functions.

But even after his career in the FBI came to a close, Mueller was catapulted back into the spotlight when he was named as special counsel to investigate allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race.

That race saw Republican Donald Trump take power for a first term as president. He quickly established an adversarial relationship with Mueller, denouncing his investigation as a “hoax”.

Trump marked Mueller’s death on Truth Social on Saturday with an acrimonious post.

“Robert Mueller just died,” he wrote. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

Other figures in Washington, however, remembered Mueller more fondly upon his passing. Democrats, in particular, condemned Trump’s remarks about Mueller.

“We mourn the passing of Robert Mueller, a true public servant: bronze star Vietnam veteran, federal prosecutor, FBI Director, and impartial special counsel,” Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat, wrote in a statement.

He took the opportunity to draw a contrast between Trump and Mueller: “Mueller and Trump represent polar opposites of what a public servant should be. May Director Mueller rest in peace.”

Reimagining the FBI

During his tenure at the FBI, from 2001 to 2013, Mueller talked about the need to balance national security challenges with respect for civil liberties.

Mueller, for example, testified in 2008 that he had warned the Department of Justice and Department of Defence against using interrogation tactics that were widely denounced as torture.

But Mueller himself nevertheless oversaw controversial practices such as expanded surveillance, including through the use of a network of informants that infiltrated mosques, Muslim community groups and social organisations with immigrant ties.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a watchdog group, opposed the extension of his term as FBI director in 2011.

While it praised Mueller for considering rights issues, the ACLU warned he had also overseen policies that violated key constitutional rights.

“FBI Director Robert Mueller should be thanked for his public service during an extraordinarily challenging period in American history,” the ACLU said at the time.

“However, the FBI’s significant misuse of its authorities under the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the infiltration of mosques, the abuse of the material witness statute, the FBI surveillance of peaceful groups with no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and the mishandling of the FBI watch list have raised significant civil liberties concerns.”

When Mueller stepped down from the FBI in 2013, he had led the bureau for 12 years, making him the longest-serving director of the agency since founder J Edgar Hoover.

Investigating the 2016 election

After leaving the FBI, Mueller briefly worked in the private sector, including as a Stanford University professor and a lawyer at the firm WilmerHale.

But in May 2017, during the early months of Trump’s first term as president, Mueller was pulled back into public service amid scandal over the 2016 election.

The Department of Justice had opened a probe into possible Russian interference in the race, which saw Trump defeat Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. It chose Mueller to serve as special counsel.

The role of special counsel exists to put distance between the executive branch and an investigation that might pose a conflict of interest to the president.

Special counsels act independently, and they are not subject to day-to-day supervision from political appointees, like the attorney general.

They are also empowered to make a determination about whether criminal charges should be brought and to prosecute any ensuing case.

Mueller’s subsequent 22-month investigation resulted in a 448-page report and indictments against 34 people, including several Trump associates.

But it stopped short of putting forward a criminal indictment against Trump himself due to concerns about propriety and agency neutrality.

“Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller told lawmakers.

“The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” he added.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted in 2018 on eight charges of financial wrongdoing and pleaded guilty to two others, receiving a seven-and-a half-year prison sentence.

Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was convicted in 2019 of seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering and sentenced to more than three years in prison. Trump later used his executive clemency power to pardon them.

But Mueller’s report ultimately pleased no one.

Democrats were disappointed by what they saw as leniency towards Trump in order to avoid political controversy.

Trump, meanwhile, accused Mueller of leading a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him, though Mueller himself was Republican.

During his second term as president, Trump went so far as to issue an executive order against Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, to punish it for hiring the former FBI director.

“Welcoming” Mueller to the firm, Trump alleged, was an attempt to “undermine justice and the interests of the United States”. A judge last May struck down the executive order against the law firm.

Some of Trump’s close associates, including Stone, responded to the news of Mueller’s passing with biting remarks.

“The judgement of Robert Mueller has moved to a much higher court,” Stone wrote online.

But many lawmakers remembered Mueller for his decades dedicated to public service, including Senator Mark Warner, who helms the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Robert Mueller devoted his life to service — from the Marine Corps to leading the FBI and serving as Special Counsel,” Warner wrote. “He believed deeply in the rule of law and the responsibility to uphold it. His legacy is one of integrity, duty, and strength of character.”