Kenneth Winston Starr, a former U.S. attorney general who gained worldwide fame in the 1990s as the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton during a series of political scandals, has died.  It was 76.   

  Starr died of complications from surgery, according to a statement from his family.   

  “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved and loving Father and Grandfather, whom we admired for his amazing work ethic, but who always put his family first.  Dad’s love, energy, endearing sense of humor and fun interest in each of us was truly special, and we cherish the many wonderful memories we were able to make with him,” Starr’s son Randall said in the statement. .  on behalf of his children.   

  Starr, who was part of former President Donald Trump’s defense team during Trump’s first impeachment, also served as president of Baylor University from 2010 to 2016. “Judge Starr was a dedicated public servant and a staunch supporter of religious liberty who it allows faith-based institutions like Baylor to flourish,” Baylor President Linda Livingstone said in a statement Tuesday.   

  A conservative Republican, Starr’s investigations into Clinton began when he was appointed by a federal appeals panel in 1994 as independent counsel to investigate then-President and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the Whitewater real estate scandal.  The Clintons were ultimately not prosecuted in that case, but Starr’s investigation into the Clintons’ dealings later expanded to include Paula Jones’ allegations of sexual harassment, and that investigation led Starr to lead the investigation into the President’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.   

  The Lewinsky affair eventually led to Clinton’s impeachment on two counts of perjury to a federal grand jury and obstruction of justice, although she was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999 and served the remainder of her term.   

  The scandal dominated Washington and much of the media for more than a year, and both Starr and Clinton were named Time’s Men of the Year in 1998. Starr’s investigation was seen as a reflection of an era of increasingly bitter partisanship in combined with tabloid-like interest in the personal lives of politicians.  In particular, Starr’s congressional report on the affair was criticized for containing many lurid details about the sexual relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky.   

  Starr rejected accusations that his pursuit of Clinton was politically motivated.   

  “The attorney general gave me a job to do and that was to find out if crimes were committed in this (Paula Jones) sexual harassment lawsuit,” Starr said at the time.  “The whole idea of ​​equal justice under the law means you have to play by the rules.  It has nothing to do with the underlying issue.  Just tell the truth.”   

  He resigned as independent counsel in October 1999, citing the “intense politicization of the independent counsel process.”   

  Starr is survived by his wife, Alice, whom he married in 1970, and three children.   

  Born in Vernon, Texas, on July 21, 1946, Starr attended Harding University in Shersey, Arkansas, and transferred to George Washington University where he graduated with a degree in history in 1968. He graduated from Brown University with a master’s degree in political science in 1969 and received a B.A. law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1973. After law school, Starr clerked for Fifth Circuit Judge David W. Dyer and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger before working for the Los Angeles law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.   

  After serving on President Ronald Reagan’s transition team, he became counsel to U.S. Attorney General William Francis Smith in 1981. Then, in 1983, he was nominated by Reagan and confirmed by the Senate as a federal judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Circuit Columbia.  After serving as a federal judge, he was appointed by President George W. Bush in 1989 as U.S. solicitor general, in which he argued 25 cases before the Supreme Court, according to the Justice Department.  In 1993, he returned to private practice working for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.   

  Starr was also part of Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team when the accused pedophile took a plea deal in 2008 that immunized him from federal prosecution.  He also represented Blackwater USA contractors charged with war crimes for killing civilians in Fallujah during the Iraq War.  In 2014, four former Blackwater contractors were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, although Trump pardoned them in 2020.   

  Outside of his legal career, Starr was a dean and professor at Pepperdine University’s law school from 2004 to 2010. He was also president of Baylor University, but was fired after an independent investigation showed a “fundamental failure” to adequately respond to sexual intercourse of student assault complaints.   

  Starr returned to the public eye in 2020 when Trump asked him to join his legal team in his first Senate trial to support his acquittal.  The choice inevitably brought back memories of another era when Washington was gripped by an impeachment inquiry, when Beltway politics grew wilder and a president with a tumultuous personal life and a zeal to dominate the media was in office.   

  This story has been updated with additional details on Tuesday.