Allegation Nation: A Brief History of Presidents and Special Prosecutors

With lingering questions about Russian influence in the last U.S. presidential election, some legislators and citizens have called for a special prosecutor. Just how common is the use of a special prosecutor, and when have they been appointed in the past?

The federal government has been using special prosecutors since 1875.  In 1978, after Watergate, Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act, which established formal rules for appointing a special prosecutor. Starting in 1983, these investigators were referred to as an independent counsel. The Ethics in Government Act expired in 1999, and the only person who can currently appoint a special prosecutor is the attorney general. Regulations are in place that limit the authority of the attorney general over a special prosecutor, but without a law in place, the enforceability of these regulations in unproven. Congress can’t independently appoint a special prosecutor without first passing a new law allowing them to do so. Before becoming law, the bill must, of course, be signed by the president.

Here’s a table of the men and women who have served as special prosecutor or independent counsel, the issue that each investigated, and the outcome. Special prosecutors have been appointed 29 times. President Clinton leads with 12 separate inquiries; President Reagan is a distant second with six.

History of Special Prosecutors and Independent Counsels

Year	President	Special Prosecutor / Independent Counsel	Issue	Outcome
1875	Ulysses Grant	John Henderson	Politicians, whiskey producers, and government employees stealing alcohol tax revenues	There were 110 convictions, $3 million in recovered taxes, and an abiding air of corruption attached to the Grant administration.
1881	James Garfield	William Cook	Post Office officials taking bribes to award highly lucrative postal delivery routes	The “Star Route” scheme was shut down, but there were few convictions.
1903	Theodore Roosevelt	Judge Holmes Conrad, Charles Bonaparte	Bribery in the Department of the Post Office	Three hundred post office officials and private contractors were convicted.
1905	Theodore Roosevelt	Francis Heney	A railroad’s use of fraud to obtain resources on federal land	Over a thousand indictments were issued, but Heney narrowed prosecution to 35 people, including a senator and two congressmen, who all eventually escaped punishment.
1921	Calvin Coolidge	Atlee Pomerene, Owen Roberts	The sale to corporations of oil held in reserve for the U.S. Navy, most notably at Teapot Dome, WY	Teapot Dome led to the first conviction and imprisonment of a former Cabinet officer.
1952	Harry Truman	Newbold Morris	Corruption within the IRS	Attorney General Howard McGrath fired Morris. Truman fired McGrath. Over 160 IRS employees were fired.
1973	Richard Nixon	Archibald Cox	The burglary of the democratic headquarters at the Watergate office complex, and its subsequent cover-up	Nixon, unwilling to cooperate with Cox, ordered AG Elliot Richardson, then Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox. They resigned instead. Solicitor General Robert Bork stepped in to dismiss Cox. The next year, the House Judiciary Committee filed the first impeachment charge. Nixon resigned two weeks later.
1978	Jimmy Carter	Arthur Hill Christy	Accusations that Carter’s chief of staff had used cocaine	No one was indicted.
1980	Jimmy Carter	Gerald Gallinghouse	Accusations that Carter’s campaign manager had used drugs	No one was indicted.
1981	Ronald Reagan	Leon Silverman	Organized crime connections of Labor Secretary Ray Donovan	No one was indicted.
1984	Ronald Reagan	Jacob Stein	Accusations of AG Edwin Meese’s preferential treatment of a defense contractor	No one was indicted, but Meese resigned when Stein’s report was submitted.
1986	Ronald Reagan	Alexia Morrison	Obstruction of justice by Theodore Olsen, legal counsel to the president	No one was indicted.
1986	Ronald Reagan	Lawrence Walsh	Charges that administration officials had secretly sold arms to Iran despite an arms embargo against that country	At least 12 individuals were indicted, including the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor, and many were convicted, but all were pardoned, granted immunity, or given probation.
1987	Ronald Reagan	James McKay	Charges that former White House aide Lyn Nofziger engaged in improper lobbying after leaving office	No one was indicted.
1987	Ronald Reagan	James Harper	Charges of income tax evasion by Assistant AG Lawrence Wallace	No one was indicted.
1990	George Bush	Arlin Adams	Charges that Samuel Pierce, HUD Secretary, had sold his influence while serving in Reagan’s cabinet	Several of Pierce’s aides were convicted on felony charges of favoritism, but Pierce was never charged.
1992	Bill Clinton	Joseph diGenova	Possible illegal search of the passport files of President Clinton by officials of the former Bush administration	No one was indicted.
1993	Bill Clinton	Kenneth Starr	Accusations that Bill and Hillary Clinton had fired employees of the White House Travel Office to give the jobs to their friends	Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton were indicted.
1994	Bill Clinton	Kenneth Starr	Charges of improper behavior by Clinton in the sale of property from the Whitewater Development Corporation	Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton were indicted, but some of their former business partners were, and 15 of them were convicted.
1994	Bill Clinton	Donald Smaltz	Charges that Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy had accepted improper gifts	Espy was indicted, but later acquitted, of all 30 criminal charges.
1994	Bill Clinton	Kenneth Starr, Robert Ray	Death of White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster	No one was indicted.
1995	Bill Clinton	David Barrett	Charges that Henry Cisneros, Clinton’s HUD Secretary, had lied to the FBI during background checks	Cisneros was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy and obstructing justice, but later pardoned by Clinton.
1995	Bill Clinton	Daniel Pearson	Charges that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown had sold seats on U.S. federal planes on an international trade mission	No one was indicted.
1996	Bill Clinton	Curt Von Kann	Accusations that Eli Segal, former Clinton chief of staff, had violated conflict of interest rules while fundraising	No one was indicted.
1996	Bill Clinton	Kenneth Starr	Charges of improper review of confidential FBI files of members of previous administrations	No one was indicted.
1998	Bill Clinton	Carol Elder Bruce	Charges that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt improperly intervened in an American Indian tribe’s application to open a casino	No one was indicted.
1998	Bill Clinton	Ralph Lancaster	Charges of influence-peddling and solicitation of illegal campaign contributions by Labor Secretary Alexis Herman	No one was indicted.
1998	Bill Clinton	Kenneth Starr	Charges that Clinton perjured himself when questioned about sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky	Clinton was impeached but later acquitted by the Senate.
2005	George W. Bush	Patrick Fitzgerald	Suspicions that members of the State Department had leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer for political ends	No one was indicted for the leak, but I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted on four felony counts of making false statement, perjury, and obstruction of justice.

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