George Hahn

One day he called me, out of the blue, and asked if I could use a homicide prosecutor in my office, recalled the chief federal prosecutor in Washington at the time, Eric Holder Jr., later Barack Obama's attorney general.

Our nation's capital was a city in great distress.

We were called the murder capital of the United States.

For the next three years, Mueller prosecuted murder cases, helping to bring down the city's homicide rate.

His greatest contribution, however, was leading the FBI for 12 years in the aftermath of 9-11, restoring public trust while reforming the Bureau to address the systemic failures that had allowed the worst terrorist attack in American history.

Fealty to his mission sometimes put him at odds with the presidents he served.

Mueller's counterterrorism agents blew the whistle on abuses and torture at secret CIA interrogation sites.

Later, in 2004, Mueller, with his resignation letter in hand, confronted President George W. Bush about a secret NSA program to spy on Americans.

In his memoir, Bush wrote, "'I had to make a big decision, and fast,'

I thought about the Saturday Night Massacre.

That was not a historical crisis I was eager to replicate.

Fearing others would follow Mueller's lead, Bush backed down, agreeing to reforms that would narrow the spying program and place it on more solid legal ground.

A year later, Mueller's deputy, James Comey, told an NSA audience,

It takes far more than a sharp legal mind to say no when it matters most.

It takes moral character.

It takes an ability to see the future.

It takes an appreciation of the damage that will flow from an unjustified yes.

My sons are too young to remember when Trump didn't dominate America's politics.

In their eyes, bragging about grabbing women by the pussy, using your office to enrich yourself, and calling your efforts to avoid STDs your own personal Vietnam aren't disqualifying.

The manosphere is teaching their generation that masculinity is performative.