Special counsel prosecutors have handled investigations into those connected to the government but not in a position of direct authority over the Justice Department's prosecutors, such as cabinet secretaries or election campaigns.
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Since the independent counsel law expired in 1999, the term 'special counsel' has been used.
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Special counsel raised separation of powers questions under the US Constitution.
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Since the special counsel is a member of the executive branch, Nixon argued that the special counsel is ultimately answerable to the president and that the president could not be compelled by a subpoena issued by his own subordinate.
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Title VI of this act was known as the Special Prosecutor Act and later renamed the Independent Counsel Act, which established formal rules for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
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Majorities of either party within the House or Senate Judiciary Committee could formally request the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor on a particular matter, but the decision of whether or not to appoint the independent counsel remained with the attorney general and was not reviewable in court.
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In 1999, these regulations were used by Reno to appoint John Danforth special counsel to investigate the FBI's handling of the Waco siege.
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In 2003, during the George W Bush administration, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special counsel to investigate the Plame affair by Deputy Attorney General James Comey after the recusal of Attorney General John Ashcroft.
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On May 17,2017, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to take over the previous FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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Existence of a law or regulations specifying the process to appoint a special counsel has not stopped the attorney general from using their statutory authority to appoint a special counsel by other means, as has happened twice.
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The special counsel regulations specify that a special counsel must be a lawyer from outside the US government, while Fitzgerald was already a federal prosecutor at the time of his appointment.
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Special counsel prosecutors are appointed in state court with greater frequency than federal, and most often in cases where a conflict of interest arises or to avoid even the appearance such a conflict exists.
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