Clinton Whitewater inquiry prosecutor Ken Starr has passed away at the age of 76
Kenneth Starr, who conducted the Whitewater probe of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1990s, died Tuesday after surgery complications, his family said. 76-year-old
Starr joined Beltway law after graduating from Duke in 1946. He clerked for Warren Burger in the 1970s and was appointed a federal judge by Reagan in 1983. Later, he was Bush’s solicitor general.
Starr became a presence in the 1990s after a three-judge panel selected him to investigate the Clintons’ real estate transactions during Bill Clinton’s Arkansas years.
Starr had broad investigative powers as independent counsel. The investigation expanded beyond the Whitewater real estate sale.
Although the Clintons were never indicted, Starr’s investigation lingered for years. Starr examined the murder of a White House counsel, the dismissal of travel agents, and FBI file misuse.
Starr’s probe eventually included Clinton’s actions as the defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, who accused Clinton of impropriety as governor of Arkansas.
Starr’s inquiry focused on Clinton’s contact with intern Monica Lewinsky and his sworn deposition about her.
Starr’s 445-page report to Congress in 1998 outlined 11 impeachment grounds, including perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of authority. The report led to Clinton’s impeachment, but he was acquitted and finished his tenure.
Starr later lamented the investigation’s direction. In his 2018 memoir Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Inquiry, he writes, “I deeply regret that I took on the Lewinsky phase of the investigation. But at the same time, as I still see it twenty years later, there was no practical alternative to my doing so,”
Starr became Baylor’s president and chancellor in 2010. Starr managed the $250 million football stadium’s opening.
Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone: “Judge Starr was a dedicated public servant and ardent supporter of religious freedom that allows faith-based institutions such as Baylor to flourish,”
She called Starr’s impact “profound.”
Starr left the university in disgrace. An inquiry found that the school mishandled sexual assault complaints involving the football team.
At least 17 women reported sexual or domestic assault involving 19 football players since 2011. Journal mentions four suspected gang rapes.
An internal Baylor investigation found that senior leadership (not Starr) failed to implement Title IX and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
In a 2018 interview with Starr claimed, “Unfortunately — and this is going to sound like an apologia, but it is the absolute truth — never was it brought to my attention that there were these issues. And I focused on student safety from day one.”
Starr joined the Lanier Law Firm in 2018 and frequently defends Trump on Fox News.
“Over four decades I have known Ken as ‘Judge Starr,’ ‘Dean Starr,’ ‘President Starr,’ ‘Uncle Ken,’ but most importantly ‘dear friend,’ to me, my family, our firm, our clients, American justice, and world justice,” stated Mark Lanier, founder and CEO of the Lanier Law Firm. The world mourns the loss of a super Starr.
Starr joined Trump’s impeachment defence in 2020.
Alice Mendell Starr, their three children, and nine grandchildren survive him.
Randall Starr stated in a statement, “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,”