Investigators in the Clinton affair: US lawyer Kenneth Starr died

The US lawyer Kenneth Starr, known for his role as a special counsel in the Lewinsky scandal, is dead. According to his family, he died in Houston, Texas, at the age of 76 from complications following an operation.

Kenneth Starr, a lawyer best known for investigating the impeachment of former US President Bill Clinton, has died.

According to his family, he died on Tuesday at the age of 76. According to his former colleague Mark Lanier, he had been in an intensive care unit in Houston for the past four months.

The much-anticipated Starr Report

Starr was selected as a special counsel to investigate, among other things, the Whitewater affair involving the Clintons’ questionable real estate deals. His five-year investigation ultimately included Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

In a report he submitted, the widely publicized Starr Report, he concluded that Clinton lied under oath about his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, obstructed justice, and failed to fulfill the constitutional duties of a president. The opposition Republicans used the findings of Starr’s report for the impeachment of Clinton in the House of Representatives. However, he was ultimately acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.

Starr also defends Donald Trump

In 2020, Starr was involved in another impeachment trial, this time as an attorney for ex-President Donald Trump. Starr was also considered a possible future contender for one of the US Supreme Court posts for a time. At 37, he became the youngest judge ever to join the Washington Court of Appeals, where Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had also served.

For four years under President George HW Bush, he served as solicitor general for the US government and represented it before the Supreme Court. After the Clinton investigation, for which Democrats branded him a right-wing fanatic, he became an apprentice and also wrote a book on the Supreme Court.