FILE: Ken Starr
(Picture: Getty Images)Ken Starr, the former lawyer and judge whose criminal investigation of Bill Clinton led to his impeachment, has died aged 76.
Mr Starr died at a hospital on Tuesday of complications from surgery, according to his former colleague, lawyer Mark Lanier.
He said Mr Starr had been hospitalised in an intensive care unit in Houston for about four months.
Mr Starr was best known as the independent counsel who led a four-year into controversies surrounding the Clinton administration, including Clinton's sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
In a tweet, Ms Lewinsky, who once said Starr’s investigation had made her life a “living hell”, expressed mixed emotions on the news of his death.
“As I'm sure many can understand, my thoughts about Ken Starr bring up complicated feelings," she tweeted.
"But of more importance, is that i imagine it's a painful loss for those who love him."
The resulting 1998 Starr report alleged that Clinton had lied under oath about the existence of the affair, which led to Clinton being impeached by the US House of Representatives.
He was later cleared by the US Senate and served the remainder of his second-year term.
Mr Starr faced criticism by the White House, who presented him as a right-wing fanatic intent on destroying the President’s career.
“The assaults took a toll" on the investigation, Mr Starr told a Senate committee in 1999.
In a tribute, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell remembered Mr Starr as “a brilliant litigator, an impressive leader, and a devoted patriot”.
In 2020, Mr Starr was also recruited to help represent former US President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.
In a post to his Truth Social account, Mr Trump paid tribute to Mr Starr as “a true American Patriot who loved our country and the law”.
“I so appreciated his support and his thoughts that our cause against fascists and other mentally sick people in our country is just,” he said.
At age 37, Mr Starr became the youngest person to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and he was later the solicitor general for George HW Bush.
Outside of law he also served as president of Baylor University in Texas, but was fired after an independent investigation uncovered failings in how the university responded to student sexual assault allegations.
