The Independent Counsel Statute expired in 1999 and was established in 1983 by the Ethics in Government Act. Since then no federal law has governed the appointment of special counsels. Rather, the Attorney General relies on their own procedural regulations as a part of the executive branch.

Attorney General Amber Holiday appointed Special Counsel Jim Cook to investigate the FBI's handling of a siege in Texas of a commune that was abusing the children of its community. The siege ended in the deaths of multiple members of the community, who chose to commit suicide rather than have the community ended by the Federal Government. The head of the community, Dennis Bryan, survived and is taken into custody. He appeals a courts finding of ten counts of sexual abuse of a child and two counts of aggravated sexual assault against a child based in part on the findings of the special counsel appointed to review the FBI's handling of the siege. The court sentenced him to life in prison.

Bryan claims that the findings of the special counsel should be thrown out as evidence against him because the special counsel now operates under the procedural regulations of the executive branch, and not through laws set up by a statute of congress. He argues that this violates his rights because it did not give him a fair trial and also because it breaks the separation of powers.

Governor Firestone of Texas had written the Executive Branch asking for its help in confronting the siege of the commune.

Issue:

Is the appointment of Special Counsel Jim Cook under the procedural regulations of the Attorney General Constitutional?

Is Bryan's sentence constitutional?