Happy New Year everyone! As our regular readers probably know, it the time of year where we honor some of the worst (and in this case best) people we've covered this past year at Crooks and Liars.

It is my honor to write a post about Robert Mueller, who many of us see as the best chance we have to hold the Donald Trump Criminal Enterprise accountable for the litany of (probable) crimes they have committed.

A little background on Robert Mueller, in case there was any doubt about his patriotism and true American heroism:

Bob Mueller was born in NYC in 1944 and grew up outside Philadelphia. He earned a BA in politics from Princeton and a MA in International relations from NYU. He then served in Vietnam, receiving the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry as an officer in the Marine Corps. After returning to the U.S., he attended UVA law school and earned his JD in 1973. Pretty impressive, right?

Mueller joined a private law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in 1973 followed a few years later by jumping into the public sector as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Northern California in 1976, followed by a rise to chief of its criminal division in 1981. He followed that with a stint as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 1982, and then as the district's acting attorney from 1986 to 1987.

Mueller moved onto the DOJ in 1989, where he led the prosecution of Manuel Noriega, oversaw the Lockerbie bombing case and formed the agency's first cyber-dedicated unit. Phew. That's a lot of work! But Mueller didn't stop there. He returned to private practice, serving as a partner at Hale and Dorr in 1993 and then a return to public sector work in the homicide division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia in 1995. Back to public sector work, again, this time in the Northern District of California from 1998 to early 2001, before serving as acting deputy attorney general for the George W. Bush administration.

In July 2001, Mueller was nominated to head the FBI. He took the job 7 days before the September 11th terrorist attack. In 2011, Barack Obama asked Mueller to stay on and Mueller accepted.

Mueller was brought back into the public sector when he was named Special Counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential election:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/05/doj-appoints-special-counsel-russia

June 2017, so long ago:

Newt Gingrich calling for an end to the investigation...just a month in:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/newt-gingrich-calls-congress-end

One of Trump's Attorney's, Jay Sekulow, suggesting that Trump should fire Mueller:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/trump-attorney-refuses-rule-out

Trump's only news source, Fox and Friends, jumps on the "Bash Mueller" bandwagon in mid June:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/fox-and-friends-joins-war-robert-muel...

Later the same day, Ron Rosenstein says "slow your roll, folks"

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/deputy-ag-rosenstein-has-seen-no-good

Things are heating up...within a month of taking the job, Mueller was already investigating Trump for obstruction of justice:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/report-mueller-investigating-trump

Trump angry tweets about Mueller:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/trump-attacks-special-counsel

Jim Jordan demands that Mueller be investigated himself (facepalm)

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/rep-jim-jordan-forget-about-russia

July came in like fire

Trump threatens Session and Mueller, slanders Comey in a truly insane interview:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/trump-gives-truly-insane-interview

Over on Fox Conspiracy Network, Ben Stein rants:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/ben-stein-mueller-has-license-hunt-and

Trump starts talking about whether he can pardon himself and his family:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/trump-asking-his-attorneys-about-his

Can Mueller reach into Trump's finances? (yes he can):

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/robert-muellers-jurisdiction-limited

Lewandowski rants that Trump can fire anyone:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/unhinged-lewandowski-rants-about-how-...

We made it to August, phew

Mueller impanels a GRAND JURY!

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/08/report-mueller-empanels-grand-jury-ru...

Knock knock. Who's there? THE FBI. Oh, Paul Manafort's house was raided by the FBI:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/08/breaking-fbi-conducted-raid-paul-mana...

Ruh roh, Manafort is in trouble:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/08/pressure-manafort-grows-feds-track-more

And now Michael "Lock him up" Flynn gets in on the action:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/08/mueller-looking-whether-flynn-played-...

We made it to September, folks

Mueller is in the White House:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/09/mueller-wants-interview-white-house-s...

Manafort was wiretapped...

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/09/breaking-manafort-was-being-wiretapped

Oh, Mueller has Trump's tax returns? You don't say:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/09/test

October is here!

A sealed indictment! Who, who could it be?

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/breaking-sealed-indictment-filed-robert

Donald "twitter fingers" Trump can't stop angry tweeting:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/grandpa-crazypants-ranting-twitter-his

Crispycreme Christie warns Mueller:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/gov-chris-christie-warns-mueller-avoid

And the indictment goes to...Manafort and Rick Gates!

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/indictment-its-manafort-and-his-assoc...

But wait, there is more! George "coffee boy" Papadopolous;

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/10/trump-aide-george-papadopoulos-may-be

November arrives, leaves turning...what does it bring?

Now it's Flynn and Flynn Jr's time in the barrel:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/report-mueller-has-gathered-enough

Howard Dean thinks Kushner will be indicted for money laundering:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/howard-dean-jared-kushner-will-be-ind...

Hannity starts ranting about HILLARY CLINTON AND URANIUM ONE:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/house-republicans-start-dancing-fox-news

Flynn probably flipped:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/michael-flynn-has-something-trump-law...

Happy Holidays! We made it to December! Buckle up, it's a BUSY month

Trump wants the investigation to end...

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/breaking-trump-urged-top-republicans-end

Flynn pleads to guilty to lying to the FBI and agrees to cooperate fully...with ANY and all investigations:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/mike-drop-flynn-pleads-guilty-today-l...

Trump angry tweets:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/trump-attacks-comey-mueller-investiga...

Conway: Lying to the FBI isn't a big deal (um, it is)

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/conway-says-flynns-lying-fbi-not-about

Uh oh, Mueller subpoenaed Trump's bank records:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/mueller-subpoenaed-deutsche-bank-records

Mueller honing in on the 18 days between when Trump knew Flynn lied and when he fired him:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/nbc-mueller-looking-18-days-after

Uh oh, looks like the transition team forgot to hand over all of their emails...so Mueller got them via legal maneuvers:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/trump-transition-wants-mueller-return

Oh, Manafort may be indicted again:

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/daily-beast-mueller-may-indict-manafort

Did Trump campaign give data mining info to Russia?

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/mueller-looking-whether-trump-campaig...

And this is where we end...the last entry for 2017:

Are Pence and Trump Jr up next?

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/pence-trump-jr-could-be-next-muellers

Robert Mueller is one of the good guys.