From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, the Justice Department appoints a special counsel to investigate the president's ties to Russia.

After months of trying to influence that investigation, has Trump just lost control of it.

And, Rod Rosenstein, the man who picked the special counsel, is he the president's problem or his protector.

It's Thursday, May 18.

Shortly after the Justice Department named a special counsel on Wednesday night, I called Matt Apuzzo.

Yeah, I'll talk to our calculator. I got to jump on this and they're called.

Hey, what's going on? Hey, Apuzzo, it's Barbaro.

It's of course it's you. Are we in the middle of breaking news? Are you calling me?

Yes, yes. Matt, what exactly is a special counsel?

Well, basically, it's just a prosecutor that's been picked because the public is concerned that there are questions about the Justice Department's independence.

It's somebody who can lead an investigation while giving people confidence that this thing's going to be done independently.

It's going to be done appropriately and nobody's going to mess around with it.

And what are the powers traditionally of a special counsel?

Well, a special counsel can do anything that a federal prosecutor can do. They can subpoena people.

They can haul people forward grand jury. They can subpoena documents.

And in this case, what the Justice Department is doing is basically saying, we need somebody who's independent from the Trump administration who can come in, run this investigation, and give the public confidence that it's going to be done thoroughly.

It's going to be insulated from even the perception of pressure from the White House or anybody else in the Trump administration.

And so what is happening here is you are getting a special prosecutor who, well, in the hierarchy is answerable up to the Deputy Attorney General, is really going to be allowed to run the investigation and serve as the guy running the case.

And just to be really clear about this, a special counsel is still in some ways answerable to the Department of Justice and therefore to the President of the United States.

Yeah, on paper, right? And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of political hand rigging over that very issue because it's not an entirely autonomous position.

Matt, why has there been such resistance in Washington to doing this very thing, appointing a special counsel until now? Why did it take so long, do you think?

...