Federal regulations found at 28 C.F.R. Part 600 provide that the attorney general can appoint a special counsel under certain circumstances. A special counsel is a prosecutor who can be fired by the president or the attorney general only for good cause. So long as he does not cross that line, a special counsel assembles his own team of investigators, runs his investigation in secret, makes his own decision as to whether to seek indictments from a grand jury or file criminal charges, and otherwise conducts his activities outside DOJ’s normal structure.
“We must make sure [these investigations are] done properly, and we are going to do that,” the attorney general vowed. (slowly and carefully)