independent counsel

independent counsel, Official appointed by the court at the request of the U.S. attorney general to investigate and prosecute criminal violations by high government officials, members of Congress, or directors of a presidential election campaign after an investigation by the attorney general finds evidence that a crime may have been committed. The counsel is intended to ensure an impartial investigation in situations in which the attorney general would face a conflict of interest. The law establishing the office was passed after the firing of Archibald Cox by Pres. Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Independent counsels played a prominent role in the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s. In 1999, in the wake of controversy over perceived abuses of the office during the Whitewater investigation of Pres. Bill Clinton, Congress declined to renew the independent counsel law.