[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1735 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1735

   To limit the removal of a special counsel, and for other purposes.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 3, 2017

     Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. Booker, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. 
  Blumenthal) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

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                                 A BILL


 
   To limit the removal of a special counsel, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Special Counsel Independence 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON REMOVAL OF SPECIAL COUNSEL.

    (a) In General.--A special counsel appointed by the Attorney 
General, or any other official appointed by the Attorney General who 
exercises a similar degree of independence from the normal Department 
of Justice chain of command, may only be removed if the Attorney 
General files an action in the United States District Court for the 
District of Columbia and files a contemporaneous notice of the action 
with the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on 
the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.
    (b) Requirement.--Any action filed under subsection (a) shall be 
heard and determined by a court of 3 judges in accordance with the 
provisions of section 2284 of title 28, United States Code, and any 
appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court.
    (c) Removal for Cause.--A special counsel or other appointed 
official described in subsection (a) may be removed only after the 
court has issued an order finding misconduct, dereliction of duty, 
incapacity, conflict of interest, or other good cause, including 
violation of policies of the Department of Justice.
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