So Long and Thanks for All the Reports

The office of the Independent Counsel has been shut down but its juicy and scathing reports from the Bill Clinton administration will always be around.

Prompted by the Watergate affair, the Independent Counsel was a judicially appointed investigator created by the 1978 Ethics in Government Act. The idea was to avoid a conflict of interest if the executive branch investigated its own officials.

The office was quite busy when Bill Clinton lived at Pennsylvania Avenue. Without a doubt, the most famous Independent Counsel was Kenneth Starr, whose infamous Starr Report led to Clinton’s impeachment.

Who can forget Independent Counsel David Barrett’s decade-long investigation into Clinton’s tax-evading Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros? Cisneros eventually pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about payments to a mistress during questioning for his cabinet position and was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy, giving false statements and obstruction of justice.

To view all of the Independent Counsel reports, click on to the U.S. Government Printing Office web site. There is a separate and quite entertaining Clinton Impeachment-related category that begins in 1998.