special prosecutor

n. an attorney from outside of the government selected by the Attorney General or Congress to investigate and possibly prosecute a federal government official for wrongdoing in office. The theory behind appointing a special prosecutor is that there is a built-in conflict of interest between the Department of Justice and officials who may have political or governmental connections with that department. The most famous special prosecutor was law professor Archibald Cox, originally chosen to investigate White House (and President Richard Nixon's) involvement in the Watergate scandal. President Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire Cox who was being aggressive in his investigation, and Richardson resigned rather than comply, as did Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Deputy Attorney General Robert Bork finally discharged Cox.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Koner's attorney Marek Para received the decision 11 days later and the Special Prosecutor's office on August 7.

giznar scrapped dismissal of Kogner's complaint in the murder case

Justice Afia Serwaa Botwe further struck out preliminary legal objections or issues raised by Counsel for the 2nd accused person, Ali Komaili, that the Special Prosecutor had no capacity and qualification to investigate and/or prosecute on sections 43(1) and 92(10) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (as amended) Act 663, and the competence of the Special Prosecutor and lawyers in that office to practice law without a solicitor's licence.

AYARIGA IS HOT ... Judge says Amidu can prosecute him

Special prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed argued before the IHC that the prosecution had laid the entire evidence before the trial court and it was waiting for the material evidence from the UK government.

FIA says UK willing to give evidence in Imran Farooq murder case

The special prosecutor had pleaded the court to give him some time to bring more evidences on the record.

Corruption cases: LHC to resume hearing on Shehbaz's bail petition today

A few anti-corruption prosecutors working on monthly-basis may resign over low pay: sources ISLAMABAD:The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has approved an extension in service of over 31 special prosecutors working on a monthly-fee basis.

NAB extends service of 31 prosecutors

(Although there is no indication that Harding was involved in any wrongdoing, his secretary of the interior, Albert Fall, eventually went to prison for taking bribes in exchange for leasing federal lands to two oil tycoons.) No other federal special prosecutor has been named under a similar congressional mandate, which is of dubious constitutionality.

The Ugly History of Special Prosecutors

In a previous hearing of the Benazir Bhutto murder case on December 15, the court had issued arrest warrants for FIA special prosecutor Khwaja Imtiaz and FIA Station House Officer (SHO) Azmat Mahmood for failing to appear in court and not providing details of Musharraf's assets.

ATC seeks reply from FIA

According to the list, eight prosecutors belong to NAB headquarters including Akbar Tarar, APGA, Imran-ul-Haq Khan, special prosecutor (Supreme Court), Farid-ul-Hassan, special prosecutor (High Court), Nasir Mahmood Mughal, special prosecutor HC, Imraz Aziz Qureshi, senior legal consultant, Azal Qureshi, special prosecutor HC, Ajmal Aziz Khalid, special prosecutor TC/LC, Osman Karim, special prosecutor TC.

NAB extends services of over 40 prosecutors

Earlier this month, Imran Shafique, special prosecutor with NAB Rawalpindi tendered his resignation.

IHC accepts Zulfi Bukhari's petition for removal of name from ECL