WASHINGTON — This is not a story about when special counsel Robert Mueller will finish his investigation, or when he’ll submit his final report. Speculation has floated for weeks that he’s close to finishing, but no one knows for sure. This is about what will happen once he’s done and what happens after Mueller and his team of prosecutors disband.

The big picture: When the investigation is over, Mueller will submit a report to Attorney General Bill Barr, and Barr will submit a report of his own to Congress. Neither report must be public, but both can be. Pending prosecutions and investigations, such as the criminal case against longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, will continue; Mueller’s office has been partnering with other federal prosecutors who can take over. Mueller will no longer be the most watched man in America, and he could return to the lucrative job he left in private practice — or at least go to an Apple Store or the airport without having his picture taken.

What has to be reported?

Mueller was appointed special counsel in May 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. His office, which at its peak had 16 lawyers, plus more assigned on limited details, operates under US Department of Justice regulations. Throughout the investigation, he has been required to report his status and major developments to the senior DOJ official overseeing his work — he reported to Rosenstein while former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe, was in office; then to former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker; and now to Barr.

When Mueller is done, the regulations require him to give Barr a “confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions” that he reached. He’ll have to tell Barr why his office decided to bring criminal charges in certain cases, and why they decided not to bring charges in others. The regulations don’t require Mueller to put any additional information in his report, but he isn’t prohibited from including other information, either.

The regulations are clear that Mueller’s report is “confidential.” They don’t say the report must become public at some later time. But they give Barr discretion to release the report, or at least information from it. The regulations broadly say that any release of information related to the special counsel’s work should be governed by the DOJ’s guidelines about public comments in criminal investigations. Those guidelines warn against sharing too much information, especially in situations where no criminal charges are filed, but they don’t prohibit it altogether.

At his confirmation hearing in January, Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee that his goal was to provide “as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.”

“I also believe it is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the special counsel’s work. For that reason, my goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law,” Barr said. “I can assure you that, where judgments are to be made by me, I will make those judgments based solely on the law and will let no personal, political, or other improper interests influence my decision.”

House Democrats introduced a resolution last week that calls for — but does not require — Mueller’s report to be released in its entirety to Congress and to the public, as long as it did not conflict with another law. The House plans to vote on that bill this week.

Even if that measure doesn’t pass, Congress will know when Mueller is done. The regulations require Barr to notify the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees when Mueller finishes. The regulations say Barr must also tell Congress if there was a time when the Justice Department official overseeing Mueller’s work — Rosenstein, Whitaker, or Barr — found that Mueller wanted to do something “so inappropriate or unwarranted” that he was blocked from doing so.

The regulations otherwise leave it up to Barr to decide what exactly to tell Congress. They also give him a choice about whether to make his own report public if it “would be in the public interest.”

There’s no explicit prohibition on Congress releasing Barr’s report — unless it includes classified information, which would need to be redacted or declassified.

What happens to Mueller’s cases?

Although most of the prosecutions that Mueller’s office has brought are done or in the final stages, there are still outstanding issues. Two key figures who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate haven’t been sentenced yet: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, who served as Trump’s deputy campaign chair and who worked on his inauguration. (Gates also served as right-hand man to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, who faced two separate indictments from Mueller’s office.) Prosecutors and lawyers for Flynn and Gates are due to tell judges this week if they’re ready for sentencing.