Former prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who led the prosecution against Democratic President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case, died Tuesday, September 13 at age 76, his family announced.
The lawyer died in a Houston hospital "due to complications following surgery," his relatives said in a statement.
Kenneth Starr had gained worldwide notoriety in the late 1990s by investigating, as an independent prosecutor, Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
His pugnacity against the president, whom he had forced to publicly unpack his sexual escapades, had not been enough to bring him down: Bill Clinton had been acquitted by the Senate in 1999.
Kenneth Starr, who has never hidden his Republican sympathies, had also participated in the defense of Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial, in 2020. Accused of having conditioned military aid to Ukraine on the opening of an investigation into the son of his rival Joe Biden by the authorities of this country, the Republican president had been acquitted thanks to the support of the senators of his party.
On Tuesday, their leader Mitch McConnell said he was saddened by the death of his "friend".
Kenneth Starr "was a brilliant lawyer, an impressive leader and a dedicated patriot," the senator added in a statement.
hymns
Born in Vernon (Texas) on July 21, 1946, this hard worker was deeply marked by his father, a Protestant preacher of the Church of Christ.
Claiming never to consume alcohol or tobacco, a fervent follower of family values, this father of three children sang, according to the American media, hymns while jogging.
A brilliant jurist, he was at 37 the youngest of the judges of the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, one of the most influential in the country.
He had then been put in charge by President George Bush of the federal government's pleadings before the Supreme Court and had entrenched his conservative service record.
Appointed on August 5, 1994, independent prosecutor in the Whitewater affair, a political and financial imbroglio around a fraudulent bankruptcy in Arkansas at the time of Governor Bill Clinton, Kenneth Starr had embarked on a crusade against the new president. .
His investigation had drifted into the extramarital affairs of the tenant of the White House and led to his indictment for perjury in the House of Representatives.
Accused of having lied under oath about the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the Democrat had been forced to make a public confession.
"Inquisitor"
The impeachment trial had however aroused unease in a large part of the American population, which had criticized Kenneth Starr for behaving like an “inquisitor”.
"My feelings for Ken Starr are complicated, but the most important thing is the pain of his loved ones," tweeted Monica Lewinsky on Tuesday, who had accused him in the past of having "pursued and terrorized" her.
After Bill Clinton's acquittal, Kenneth Starr had worked as a lawyer, professor, university rector or commentator on the conservative Fox News channel.
In 2016, he was removed from his position as president of Baylor University, a large private Baptist university in Texas, for failing to take the necessary sanctions against athletes of the establishment's American football team accused of sexual assault.
With AFP
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