The Nation - News from July 17, 1988

Outgoing Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, the recent target of an investigation by an independent counsel, told a judicial conference in St. Louis that he opposes the use of independent counsels because they are “for all intents and purposes unaccountable.” The system could be used by Congress to control the presidency, he charged, without elaborating, in a speech to lawyers and judges associated with the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Court-appointed independent counsels were created by the 1978 Ethics in Government Act to investigate wrongdoing in the executive branch. Their use was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.