Whitewater Investigator Ken Starr Dead At 76

Topline

Kenneth Starr, the Texas attorney in the Whitewater investigation that later led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died Tuesday at 76, his family announced.

Key Facts

Starr died in a Houston hospital from surgery complications, his family said in a statement.

Starr is survived by his wife Alice Mendell Starr, three children and nine grandchildren, his family said.

He will be buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin after a funeral next week in Waco, Texas.

Key Background

Starr was born in 1946 and grew up in San Antonio. In 1982, he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., circuit by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. In 1994, Starr was tasked with investigating the suicide of White House counsel Vince Foster, along with Clinton’s investments in Whitewater Development Corporation, a real estate firm. The investigation later expanded to to Clinton’s suspected perjury after he denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, a 24-year-old White House intern. The Starr Report, published in 1998, alleged Clinton lied about his affair with Lewinsky in a sworn deposition, which led to Clinton’s 1998 impeachment. Starr went on to serve as the U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush, and as President and Chancellor of Baylor University and Dean of the Pepperdine School of Law, respectively. The Baylor board of regents voted to remove Starr as president in 2016, saying he and other officials failed to appropriately handle allegations of rape on campus, particularly against members of the school’s top-ranked football team.