Ken Starr
Kenneth Winston Starr was an American lawyer and judge who as independent counsel authored the Starr Report, which served as the basis of the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, known as the Whitewater controversy, from 1994 to 1998. Starr previously served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1983 to 1989 and as the U.S. solicitor general from 1989 to 1993 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
Starr received the most public attention for his tenure as independent counsel while Bill Clinton was U.S. president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Clinton. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Ethics in Government Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including suspected perjury about Clinton's sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. After more than four years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's Arkansas law license.
Starr served as the dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. He was later both the president and the chancellor of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from June 2010 until May and June 2016, respectively, and at the same time the Louise L. Morrison chair of constitutional law at Baylor Law School. On May 26, 2016, following an investigation into the mishandling by Starr of several sexual assaults at the school, Baylor University's board of regents announced that Starr's tenure as university president would end on May 31. The board said he would continue as chancellor, but on June 1, Starr resigned that position with immediate effect. On August 19, 2016, Starr announced he would also resign from his tenured professor position at Baylor Law School, completely severing his ties with the university in a "mutually agreed separation", following accusations that he ignored allegations of sexual assault on campus. On January 17, 2020, Starr joined President Donald Trump's legal team during his first impeachment trial.
Early life and education
Starr was born near Vernon, Texas, the son of Vannie Maude and Willie D. Starr, and was raised in Centerville, Texas. His father was a minister in the Churches of Christ who also worked as a barber. Starr attended Sam Houston High School in San Antonio and was a popular, straight‑A student. His classmates voted him most likely to succeed. In 1970, Starr married Alice Mendell, who was raised Jewish but converted to Christianity. They had three children.Starr attended the Churches of Christ–affiliated Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he was an honor student, a member of the Young Democrats, and a vocal supporter of Vietnam protesters. He later transferred to George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history, in 1968. While there, he became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon.
Starr was not drafted for military service during the Vietnam War, as he was classified 4‑F, because he had psoriasis. He worked in the Southwestern Advantage entrepreneurial program and later attended Brown University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1969. Starr then attended the Duke University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Duke Law Journal and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1973.
Legal career
After he graduated from law school, Starr was a law clerk to judge David W. Dyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1973 to 1974. From 1975 to 1977, he clerked for chief justice Warren E. Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court.In 1977, Starr joined the Washington, D.C., office of the Los Angeles–based law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 1981 he was appointed counselor to U.S. attorney general William French Smith.
Starr was a member of the Federalist Society.
Federal judge and solicitor general
On September 13, 1983, he was nominated by Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by George MacKinnon. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 20, 1983, and received his commission on September 20, 1983. He resigned on May 26, 1989.Starr was the United States solicitor general, from 1989 to 1993, under George H. W. Bush.
Early 1990s
When the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics needed someone to review Republican senator Bob Packwood's diaries, the committee chose Starr. In 1990, Starr was the leading candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court nomination after William Brennan's retirement. He encountered strong resistance from the Department of Justice leadership, which feared Starr might not be reliably conservative as a Supreme Court justice. George H. W. Bush nominated David Souter instead of Starr.Starr also considered running for the United States Senate, from Virginia in 1994, against incumbent Chuck Robb, but opted against opposing Oliver North for the Republican nomination.
Independent counsel
Appointment
In July 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno sought to reappoint moderate Republican Robert B. Fiske to serve as independent counsel, following the passage of the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994, which reauthorized the Ethics in Government Act. At the time, the Special Division of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was composed of three judges: David B. Sentelle, John D. Butzner Jr., and Joseph T. Sneed III; the panel comprised two Republicans and one Democrat. In August 1994, the panel appointed Starr to continue the Whitewater investigation. Starr replaced Robert B. Fiske, who had been appointed by attorney general Janet Reno in January. The decision from the court was unexpected.Starr took the position part-time and remained active with his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, as this was permitted by statute and was also the norm with previous independent counsel investigations. As time went on, he was increasingly criticized for alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his continuing association with Kirkland & Ellis. Kirkland, like several other major law firms, was representing clients in litigation with the government, including tobacco companies and auto manufacturers. The firm itself was being sued by the Resolution Trust Corporation, a government agency involved in the Whitewater matter. Additionally, Starr's own actions were challenged because Starr had, on one occasion, talked with lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing Bill Clinton over an alleged sexual harassment. Starr had explained to them why he believed that sitting U.S. Presidents are not immune to civil suit. When this constitutional question ultimately reached the Supreme Court, the justices unanimously agreed.
Investigation of the death of Vince Foster
On October 10, 1997, Starr's report on the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, drafted largely by Starr's deputy Brett Kavanaugh, was released to the public by the Special Division. The complete report is 137 pages long and includes an appendix added to the Report by the Special Division over Starr's objection. The report agrees with the findings of previous independent counsel Robert B. Fiske that Foster committed suicide at Fort Marcy Park, in Virginia, and that his suicide was caused primarily by undiagnosed and untreated depression. As CNN explained on February 28, 1997, "The report refutes claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup," but "despite those findings, right-wing political groups have continued to allege that there was more to the death and that the president and first lady tried to cover it up." CNN also noted that organizations pushing the murder theory included the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, and Accuracy in Media, supported in part by Scaife's foundation. Scaife's reporter on the Whitewater matter, Christopher Ruddy, was a frequent critic of Starr's handling of the case.Expansion of the investigation
The law conferred broad investigative powers on Starr and the other independent counsels named to investigate the administration, including the right to subpoena nearly anyone who might have information relevant to the particular investigation. Starr would later receive authority to conduct additional investigations, including the firing of White House Travel Office personnel, potential political abuse of confidential FBI files, Madison Guaranty, Rose Law Firm, Paula Jones lawsuit and, most notoriously, possible perjury and obstruction of justice to cover up President Clinton's sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The Lewinsky portion of the investigation included the secret taping of conversations between Lewinsky and coworker Linda Tripp, requests by Starr to tape Lewinsky's conversations with Clinton, and requests by Starr to compel Secret Service agents to testify about what they might have seen while guarding Clinton. With the investigation of Clinton's possible adultery, critics of Starr believed that he had crossed a line and was acting more as a political hit man than as a prosecutor.Clinton–Lewinsky scandal, Paula Jones lawsuit
In his deposition for the Paula Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. On the basis of the evidence provided by Monica Lewinsky, a blue dress stained with Clinton's semen, Ken Starr concluded that this sworn testimony was false and perjurious.During the deposition in the Jones case, Clinton was asked, "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1, as modified by the Court?" The definition included contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of a person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of that person, any contact of the genitals or anus of another person, or contact of one's genitals or anus and any part of another person's body either directly or through clothing. The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the agreed definition. Clinton flatly denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. Later, at the Starr grand jury, Clinton stated that he believed the definition of "sexual relations" agreed upon for the Jones deposition excluded his receiving oral sex.
Starr's investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton, with whom Starr shared Times Man of the Year designation for 1998. Following his impeachment, the president was acquitted in the subsequent trial before the United States Senate as all 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to acquit.