James Quarles is a former partner at the law firm WilmerHale and a former assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. Recently served as a partner at WilmerHale’s Litigation/Controversy Department. FEC records show Quarles has contributed more than $35,000 to Democratic House, Senate and presidential candidates since 1987, as well as $2,500 to Republican Jason Chaffetz in 2015 and $250 to Republican Sen. George Allen in 2005.
Jeannie Rhee is a former partner at the law firm WilmerHale, who has served in the Office of Legal Counsel and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. “She’s a top financial and fraud prosecutor… having spent years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington,” ABC News contributor and former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matt Olsen said. Mueller’s appointment of Rhee drew the ire of conservative commentators, owing in part to large sums she had donated to Democratic campaigns — $5,400 to Clinton in 2015 and 2016, and $4,800 to the Obama campaign in 2008 and 2011, as well as $4,800 in further donations to the Obama Victory Fund. Additionally, Rhee donated more than $3,000 to other Democratic causes since 2004. Conservatives also took aim at Rhee’s defense of the Clinton Foundation in a 2015 case after she left the Obama administration in 2011 and entered private practice at WilmerHale.
Brian Richardson, a former Supreme Court clerk under Justice Stephen Breyer, joined the special counsel in July 2017. He also served as a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit from 2013 to 2014.
Brandon Van Grack is an attorney on loan from the DOJ’s National Security Division. Grack served as counsel to the assistant attorney general at the National Security Division before joining the Eastern District of Virginia as a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney for National Security and International Crime. Van Grack gave about $300 to the Obama campaign and Victory Fund in 2008, in addition to other Democratic donations totaling less than $100 in 2012.
Andrew Weissmann is an attorney on loan from the DOJ Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, who has served as general counsel at the FBI under then-Director Mueller and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Before joining the FBI, Weissmann oversaw the Enron Task Force from 2002 to 2005, including the prosecution of Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay and Andrew Fastow. Before that, Weissmann served in the Eastern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, where, according to the Justice Department, he was “instrumental in bringing to justice high-ranking members” of New York’s toughest crime families. While a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block in 2008, Weissmann donated a total of $4,700 to the Obama campaign and Victory Fund. Meanwhile, a donor listed as “Andrew Weissman,” from the same law firm donated $4600 to Clinton in 2007 and $2,000 to the DNC in 2006.
Aaron Zebley is a former partner at the law firm WilmerHale, who previously served with Mueller at the FBI and has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Zebley served as chief of staff to both Mueller and his successor as FBI Director, James Comey. Zebley most recently served as Senior Counselor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Before his time at the FBI, Zebley investigated national security matters for the US Attorney’s office in Alexandria, VA and as a FBI Special Agent in the Counterterrorism Division.
Aaron Zelinsky is an attorney on loan from the District of Maryland. Before Zelinsky’s appointment to the Mueller team, he worked under the man who appointed Mueller special counsel – Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Zelinsky worked as an assistant U.S. attorney under Rosenstein during the latter’s time as U.S. Attorney in Maryland. While in Maryland, Zelinsky earned an award for Excellence in Prosecution of Organized Crime. Additionally, Zelinsky has clerked for retired Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court. Harold Koh, formerly of the State Department, has said he brought Zelinsky in as a special assistant at the State Department, where he worked the cases of Americans held hostage abroad. Koh calls Zelinsky “an incredible team leader.”
Two FBI veterans have left the team since its inception.
Peter Strzok, who had been tapped by Mueller to help lead the probe, left the team last summer, sources told ABC News in August. As chief of the FBI’s counterespionage section, he helped oversee the FBI’s investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server when she was the U.S. secretary of state. His office was also involved in investigating Russia's alleged efforts to influence last year's presidential election, including the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers. Strzok left the Mueller team amid revelations that he and a fellow, former team member, Lisa Page, had exchanged numerous texts during the 2016 election disparaging then-candidate Trump.
Lisa Page, described as a trial attorney with “deep experience [in] money laundering and organized crime cases,” left around the same time as Strzok and returned to work in the office of the FBI’s general counsel, a spokesperson for the special counsel confirmed to ABC News last September. According to one source, Page joined Mueller’s team on a short, temporary assignment and always expected to return as soon as that assignment ended. Page and Strzok remain under scrutiny for the text messages the two exchanged during the campaign.