Noah Feldman, Columnist

It’s Not Mueller’s Fault: The Special Counsel Rules Are Broken

The structure of the prosecutor’s office put both Trump and the man investigating him in a bind.

July 28, 2019 at 1:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Back to the drawing board.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

There’s been plenty of finger-pointing over the past few days, after Robert Mueller’s testimony before two House committees failed to animate his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election in the way the president’s critics had hoped. But the problem didn’t start with Mueller’s performance, or the lack of attention paid to the report itself, or the efforts made by the attorney general to mischaracterize it.

It’s become clear to me that the problems go back even further: The regulations governing the appointment of a special counsel doomed Mueller’s investigation from the start.