If you watched the house interrogating Rosenstein & Wray yesterday, you saw Obstruction of Justice

[spanone]

in full bloom.

This is an Independent Counsel investigation.

Legal Definition of independent counsel

: an 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 reelection campaign after a preliminary investigation by the Attorney General finds specific and credible evidence that a crime may have been committed

NOTE: The use of an independent counsel was codified in the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 and is designed to ensure an impartial investigation (as when the Attorney General would face a conflict of interest). The independent counsel was formally called a special prosecutor until 1983.

[unblock]

1. mueller is "special counsel". he is an independent prosecutor, but not an "independent counsel".

the independent counsel statute expired in 1999.

[spanone]

2. ...

The terms 'special prosecutor', 'independent counsel', and 'special counsel' have the same fundamental meaning, and their use (at least at the federal level in the U.S.) is generally differentiated by the time period to which they are being applied. The term 'special prosecutor' was used throughout the Watergate era, but was replaced by the less confrontational 'independent counsel' in the 1983 reauthorization of the Ethics in Government Act.[5] Those appointed under that act after 1983 are generally referred to as 'independent counsels'. Since the independent counsel law expired in 1999, the term 'special counsel' has been used. This is the term used in the current U.S. government regulations concerning the appointment of special counsels.[6]

While the term 'special prosecutor' is sometimes used in historical discussions of such figures before 1983, the term 'special counsel' appears to have been frequently used as well, including, for example, in contemporary newspaper accounts[7] describing the first presidentially-appointed special counsel in 1875.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor

[unblock]

3. there are nevertheless some key differences.

most notably, i think, is that mueller can be fired. not directly by donnie, but by the attorney general (or rosenstein in this case where sessions has recused himself).

i don't think the old "independent counsel" could be fired, at least not in such a "simple" manner.