Legislative Background
Recent Action on the Independent Counsel Law
The statutory provisions for the appointment of an independentcounsel, known as the Independent Counsel Act, were originallyenacted as Title VI of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. Enactedfour years after President Richard Nixon’s resignation in thewake of the Watergate scandal, the legislation was intended toestablish a fair and impartial system for investigating high-levelgovernment officials.The statute removed the responsibility of overseeing investigationsof high-level officials from the attorney general and other JusticeDepartment officials in order to insulate such investigationsas much as possible from political pressure.Congressional Reauthorizations. The 1978 statute expiredafter five years, but was renewed in 1983. At that time, Congressmade…
