Archibald Cox, appointed special prosecutor in 1973 by Richard Nixon’s Attorney-General to investigate White House involvement in the Watergate break-in, ordered the president to turn over Oval Office tapes and was fired for refusing to back down. After Nixon’s resignation, therefore, Congress passed the Independent Counsel Act to safeguard the investigative powers of the special prosecutor. Since 1973, twenty-three independent counsels have been appointed to investigate alleged abuses of power by presidents and other government officials. The most significant of these was Ken Starr, appointed by Attorney-General Janet Reno to investigate Bill Clinton and Whitewater.

Starr’s subsequent focus on the president’s affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, resulting in impeachment proceedings, led many to believe that the position had been tainted by the special prosecutor’s partisan politics. After this investigation, the law was allowed to lapse.