Amanda Andrade-Rhoades | Bloomberg | Getty Images Ken Starr, who led the Whitewater investigation into former President Bill Clinton, died Tuesday at the age of 76, his family said in a statement. Starr died in Houston of complications from surgery, the statement said. Starr was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C. Circuit, and served as U.S. solicitor general under then-President George H. W. Bush. He also held roles as dean of Pepperdine University Law School and president of Baylor University, a tenure that ended in 2016 after an investigation into the school’s mishandling of sexual assault cases. But he is best known for leading Whitewater, the sprawling investigation that began as a real estate investment probe of then-President Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton but expanded into many other areas — including the infamous Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. That scandal involved the president’s extramarital affair with Lewinsky, which began when she was a 24-year-old White House intern. Clinton, who falsely denied the affair, was impeached by the House on perjury and obstruction of justice charges stemming from the scandal. The Senate later acquitted Clinton of all charges. Starr in 1994 was appointed independent counsel to the Whitewater investigation, which began as an inquiry into the fallout from a failed Arkansas land development deal pursued by the Clintons and their associates years before Bill Clinton became president. Starr’s wide-ranging investigation also touched on the death of Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, which sparked intrigue and spawned conspiracy theories but was ultimately ruled a suicide. Several people involved in the Whitewater scandal were convicted of charges related to the investigation, but the Clintons themselves were never criminally charged. Starr reportedly helped the defense team cut a deal freeing Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy sex offender and accused sex trafficker, of serious federal charges. Critics called this non-prosecution agreement a “sweetheart deal.” Epstein killed himself in 2019, a month after he was arrested and indicted in New York on charges of abusing dozens of underage girls. Most recently, Starr joined the legal team defending former President Donald Trump in his first Senate impeachment trial in early 2020. That trial revolved around Trump’s efforts to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to announce an investigation into President Joe Biden, who was then considered a possible Democratic candidate for the presidency. The Republican-majority Senate acquitted Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Parliament requires a two-thirds vote to impeach a president and remove him from office. This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
