Clinton Investigator Ken Starr Dies at 76, Family Confirms

Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr answers questions during a discussion held at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2018. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Kenneth Starr, a former independent counsel who investigated then-President Bill Clinton, died on Tuesday. He was 76.

His family said Starr died due to complications from a recent surgery.

“We are deeply saddened with the loss of our dear and loving Father and Grandfather, whom we admired for his prodigious work ethic, but who always put his family first. The love, energy, endearing sense of humor, and fun-loving interest Dad exhibited to each of us was truly special, and we cherish the many wonderful memories we were able to experience with him,” Starr’s son, Randall, said in a statement Tuesday.

Other details about his death were not provided.

Starr, a longtime Republican, was also a member of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team during the first impeachment trial.

Starr was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan to serve on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in 1983 before becoming the U.S. solicitor general years later. In that role, Starr argued more than two-dozen cases in front of the Supreme Court.

In the 1990s, Starr was named by a court to investigate a Clinton real estate investment deal known as Whitewater. That eventually expanded to encompass the former president’s affair with aide Monica Lewinsky, which became the subject of Clinton’s impeachment inquiry and trial.

Clinton denied the relationship with Lewinsky and was impeached by the House on obstruction of justice and perjury charges. He was later acquitted in 1999 by the Senate.

“Much of the drama was tragically unnecessary, in my view, a self-inflicted wound by a talented but deeply flawed president who showed contempt for the law, the American people and the women he had used,” Starr wrote for the Wall Street Journal in 2018 about his role in the impeachment and investigation. “Yet ultimately, much of the nation readily forgave Bill Clinton and instead blamed the prosecutor: me.”

Starr’s investigation also touched on the unusual death of Vince Foster, a deputy White House counsel under Clinton, which sparked a number of theories. Foster’s death was ruled a suicide.

In the Whitewater scandal, several people were convicted in connection to the case. But neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton was charged.

Between 2010 and 2016, Starr was the president of Baylor University. The college’s president, Linda A. Livingstone, issued a statement following his death.

“Judge Starr was a dedicated public servant and ardent supporter of religious freedom that allows faith-based institutions such as Baylor to flourish," Livingstone said.

Starr is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Alice Mendell Starr, and his three children, according to the family statement.