The authors analyze the origins, evolution, functions and dissolution of the office of the independent counsel, created in the late-1970s to investigate and prosecute alleged executive misconduct in the federal government. They provide an overview of how executive misconduct was handled in the 18th, 19th and early-20th centuries, and then review the Watergate investigations which led to passage of the first independent counsel law in 1978. A summary of each of the 20 independent counsel investigations is followed by a chapter on the dissolution of the law in 1999, regulations which replaced the expired law, and possible ways to handle future alleged executive misconduct.