What Is and Isn't Special About a Special Counsel: QuickTake Q&A

The criminal probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election underwent a personnel shakeup. With the U.S. attorney general self-sidelined, and a new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation close to winning Senate confirmation, a makeshift lineup of law-enforcement officials has been overseeing an inquiry that has implications for American foreign policy, American politics and the Trump presidency. There have been calls to shake up Congress’s investigations as well, perhaps by creating an independent commission like the one that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, was called back into service as special counsel to oversee the probe. He was selected by, and answers to, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. That’s because Rosenstein’s boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recused himself, having come under fire for not telling Congress about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s campaign. At the FBI, which is part of the Justice Department, Trump’s firing of James Comey made his deputy, Andrew McCabe, the acting director. Trump’s nominee to lead the bureau, Christopher A. Wray, will take over if and when he is confirmed by the Senate.