Ken Starr, the Reagan judicial appointee who famously led the prosecution against former President Bill Clinton and his administration during the 1990s Whitewater scandal, died Tuesday of complications from a surgery at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, according to his family. He was 76.
Starr recently regained fame when he joined Donald Trump’s legal team for the former president’s first impeachment trial.
“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,” his son Randall P. Starr said in a statement. “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.”
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Starr devoted much of his life to government work and teaching the law. Through his varied GOP career, he was a U.S. solicitor general under George H.W. Bush, a United States circuit judge, a counselor and chief of staff to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, a law professor of 25 years, a dean of Pepperdine’s law school, and the president and chancellor of Baylor University.
“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,” said co-worker Mark Lanier. “The world has lost a super Starr, and the world is rightly in mourning.”
Starr’s initial investigation into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investments in the Whitewater Development Corporation mushroomed into a sprawling inquiry into Clinton administration, notably Clinton’s suspected perjury about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Starr’s report on the alleged perjury led to Clinton’s impeachment.
His career from then on would encounter a number of highly public controversies.
In 2007, Starr joined Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team, defending the convicted sex offender against felony prostitution and trafficking charges with a number of underaged girls which resulted in a 13-month work release plea deal. The following year, he represented Prop 8 supporters in their effort to illegitimate nearly 18,000 same-sex marriages in California.
“I have always tried to act with integrity and to be guided by the great principles of the American legal system,” Starr told Newsweek in July 2021 regarding his work with Epstein.
