Office of Special Counsel (OSC)

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency that protects federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially retaliation against whistleblowers, and enforces the Hatch Act’s restrictions on partisan political activity by government workers. It is entirely separate from a DOJ special counsel, a prosecutor appointed to investigate a specific matter. The OSC and the MSPB form part of the administrative system through which certain federal employee disputes must proceed, and Donald Trump’s 2025 removal of the leaders of both bodies figured in the immigration judges’ free speech case the Supreme Court addressed in 2026.