Presidents and Impeachment: Bill Clinton and Ken Starr
The two instances of impeachment hearings that took place in the 20th century followed on the heels of an investigation by a Special Prosecutor. In the case of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, that special prosecutor was a former appellate court Judge and former Solicitor General named Kenneth Winston Starr.
Ken Starr had served as a federal Court of Appeals judge from 1983 to 1989. He was named as the solicitor general for President George H. W. Bush. But he received the most public attention for his role as independent counsel while Bill Clinton was president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and Clinton's real estate investments in a development known as Whitewater. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous other areas including suspected perjury by and on behalf of Clinton's sexual activity with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. After several years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Starr was born near Vernon, Texas. His father was a minister in the Churches of Christ who also worked as a barber. Starr attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he was an honor student, and also a member of the Young Democrats. He later transferred to George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, in 1968. He avoided the draft for military service during the Vietnam War, because he was classified as 4‑F due to having psoriasis. He later attended Brown University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1969, and then Duke University School of Law, earning a J.D. in 1973.
After his graduation from Duke, Starr worked as a law clerk for U.S. circuit judge David W. Dyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Later, he clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger of the Supreme Court of the United States. Starr joined the Washington, D.C., office of the Los Angeles–based law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in 1977.
On September 13, 1983, Starr was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 20, 1983. He resigned from the bench on May 26, 1989, to accept the position of United States solicitor general, a post he held from 1989 to 1993, under President George H. W. Bush.
In 1990, Starr was considered to be the leading candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court nomination after William Brennan's retirement, but his potential nomination was opposed by some who questioned his conservative credentials. President Bush nominated David Souter instead. Starr also considered running for the United States Senate, from Virginia in 1994 as a Republican, but supported Oliver North for the nomination instead.
In August 1994, Starr was appointed under the newly amended Ethics in Government Act by a special three-judge division of the D.C. Circuit to continue the Whitewater investigation. This was an investigation into allegations concerning the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal. The investments centered around the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture incorporated in 1979 with the purpose of developing vacation properties on land along the White River near Flippin, Arkansas. In March 1992 the New York Times reported that the Clintons, then governor and first lady of Arkansas, had invested and lost money in the Whitewater Development Corporation. L. Jean Lewis, a Resolution Trust Corporation investigator was looking into the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, also owned by Jim and Susan McDougal. On September 2, 1992, Lewis submitted a criminal referral to the FBI naming Bill and Hillary Clinton as witnesses in the Madison Guaranty case. Little Rock U.S. Attorney Charles A. Banks and the FBI decided that the allegation lacked merit, but Lewis continued to pursue the case. From 1992 to 1994, Lewis issued several additional referrals against the Clintons and repeatedly called the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock and the Justice Department about the case.
In November of 1993, David Hale claimed in November 1993 that Bill Clinton had pressured him into providing an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. Hale had not mentioned Clinton's involvement in the loan during the original FBI investigation of Madison Guaranty in 1989. It was only after coming under indictment himself in 1993, that Hale made allegations against the Clintons. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project. Jim Guy Tucker, Bill Clinton's successor as governor, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years of probation for his role in the matter. Susan McDougal served 18 months in prison for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions relating to Whitewater.
Starr replaced Robert B. Fiske, a moderate Republican who had been appointed by attorney general Janet Reno to investigate the allegations against Clinton regarding Whitewater. Starr took the position on a part-time basis, while remaining active with his law firm, but as time went on, Starr was criticized for alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his continuing association with his firm, which was representing clients in litigation with the government.
On October 10, 1997, Starr's report on the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was released. The report was drafted largely by Starr's deputy, future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The 137 page 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. The report refuted claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup.
As an independent counsel, Starr was given broad investigative powers, including the right to subpoena anyone who might have information relevant to the particular investigation. Starr asked for and was granted authority to conduct additional investigations, including the firing of White House Travel Office personnel, potential political abuse of confidential FBI files, a lawsuit by Paula Jones against Clinton and, 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. Starr also made requests to tape Lewinsky's conversations with Clinton, and to compel Secret Service agents to testify about what they might have seen while guarding Clinton.
The inquiry by Starr into Clinton's marital infidelity drew criticism who believed that he had crossed a line beyond the scope of his initial appointment, and was now acting from purely political motives. Nevertheless, Starr persisted in his investigation of matters concerning Clinton and Lewinsky. In his deposition for the Paula Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky had provided Starr's investigators with a blue dress with Clinton's semen on it, leading Starr to conclude that Clinton's 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. 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 and report formed the basis for the resolution that led to the impeachment of President Clinton. Clinton and Starr shared Time's Man of the Year designation for 1998. Despite his impeachment, Clinton was acquitted in the subsequent trial before the United States Senate as all 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to acquit. This was well short of the necessary two-thirds majority required for conviction.
In 2004, Starr stated that he regretted ever having asked the Department of Justice to assign him to oversee the Lewinsky investigation. He said, "the most fundamental thing that could have been done differently" would have been for somebody else to have investigated the matter.
After five years as independent counsel, Starr resigned and returned to private practice as an appellate lawyer and a visiting professor at New York University, the Chapman University School of Law, and the George Mason University School of Law. Starr worked as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in litigation. On April 6, 2004, he was appointed dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. On February 15, 2010, Baylor University announced that Starr would become its president. He was introduced as the new president on June 1, 2010.
In September 2015, Baylor's Board of Regents initiated an external review of the university's response to reports of sexual violence. Baylor was accused of failing to respond to reports of rape and sexual assault filed by at least six female students from 2009 to 2016. Former football player Tevin Elliot was convicted of rape and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the offence. Another student, Sam Ukwuachu, was also convicted of rape, had that conviction overturned and was retried, only to see it reinstated by the Texas Court of Appeals in 2018. On May 26, 2016 the Board of Regents announced Starr's removal as university president, effective May 31. Starr said in an interviewer that he took that action "as a matter of conscience" and that he "willingly accepted responsibility", adding, "the captain goes down with the ship." Many called Starr a hypocrite for his role in covering up the Baylor Football sex scandal, taking into account how critical he was of Clinton in regards to Clinton's scandal.
Ken Starr had served as a federal Court of Appeals judge from 1983 to 1989. He was named as the solicitor general for President George H. W. Bush. But he received the most public attention for his role as independent counsel while Bill Clinton was president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and Clinton's real estate investments in a development known as Whitewater. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous other areas including suspected perjury by and on behalf of Clinton's sexual activity with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. After several years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Starr was born near Vernon, Texas. His father was a minister in the Churches of Christ who also worked as a barber. Starr attended Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, where he was an honor student, and also a member of the Young Democrats. He later transferred to George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, in 1968. He avoided the draft for military service during the Vietnam War, because he was classified as 4‑F due to having psoriasis. He later attended Brown University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1969, and then Duke University School of Law, earning a J.D. in 1973.
After his graduation from Duke, Starr worked as a law clerk for U.S. circuit judge David W. Dyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Later, he clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger of the Supreme Court of the United States. Starr joined the Washington, D.C., office of the Los Angeles–based law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher in 1977.
On September 13, 1983, Starr was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 20, 1983. He resigned from the bench on May 26, 1989, to accept the position of United States solicitor general, a post he held from 1989 to 1993, under President George H. W. Bush.
In 1990, Starr was considered to be the leading candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court nomination after William Brennan's retirement, but his potential nomination was opposed by some who questioned his conservative credentials. President Bush nominated David Souter instead. Starr also considered running for the United States Senate, from Virginia in 1994 as a Republican, but supported Oliver North for the nomination instead.
In August 1994, Starr was appointed under the newly amended Ethics in Government Act by a special three-judge division of the D.C. Circuit to continue the Whitewater investigation. This was an investigation into allegations concerning the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal. The investments centered around the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture incorporated in 1979 with the purpose of developing vacation properties on land along the White River near Flippin, Arkansas. In March 1992 the New York Times reported that the Clintons, then governor and first lady of Arkansas, had invested and lost money in the Whitewater Development Corporation. L. Jean Lewis, a Resolution Trust Corporation investigator was looking into the failure of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, also owned by Jim and Susan McDougal. On September 2, 1992, Lewis submitted a criminal referral to the FBI naming Bill and Hillary Clinton as witnesses in the Madison Guaranty case. Little Rock U.S. Attorney Charles A. Banks and the FBI decided that the allegation lacked merit, but Lewis continued to pursue the case. From 1992 to 1994, Lewis issued several additional referrals against the Clintons and repeatedly called the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock and the Justice Department about the case.
In November of 1993, David Hale claimed in November 1993 that Bill Clinton had pressured him into providing an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. Hale had not mentioned Clinton's involvement in the loan during the original FBI investigation of Madison Guaranty in 1989. It was only after coming under indictment himself in 1993, that Hale made allegations against the Clintons. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project. Jim Guy Tucker, Bill Clinton's successor as governor, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years of probation for his role in the matter. Susan McDougal served 18 months in prison for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions relating to Whitewater.
Starr replaced Robert B. Fiske, a moderate Republican who had been appointed by attorney general Janet Reno to investigate the allegations against Clinton regarding Whitewater. Starr took the position on a part-time basis, while remaining active with his law firm, but as time went on, Starr was criticized for alleged conflicts of interest stemming from his continuing association with his firm, which was representing clients in litigation with the government.
On October 10, 1997, Starr's report on the death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was released. The report was drafted largely by Starr's deputy, future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The 137 page 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. The report refuted claims by conservative political organizations that Foster was the victim of a murder plot and coverup.
As an independent counsel, Starr was given broad investigative powers, including the right to subpoena anyone who might have information relevant to the particular investigation. Starr asked for and was granted authority to conduct additional investigations, including the firing of White House Travel Office personnel, potential political abuse of confidential FBI files, a lawsuit by Paula Jones against Clinton and, 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. Starr also made requests to tape Lewinsky's conversations with Clinton, and to compel Secret Service agents to testify about what they might have seen while guarding Clinton.
The inquiry by Starr into Clinton's marital infidelity drew criticism who believed that he had crossed a line beyond the scope of his initial appointment, and was now acting from purely political motives. Nevertheless, Starr persisted in his investigation of matters concerning Clinton and Lewinsky. In his deposition for the Paula Jones lawsuit, Clinton denied having "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky had provided Starr's investigators with a blue dress with Clinton's semen on it, leading Starr to conclude that Clinton's 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. 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 and report formed the basis for the resolution that led to the impeachment of President Clinton. Clinton and Starr shared Time's Man of the Year designation for 1998. Despite his impeachment, Clinton was acquitted in the subsequent trial before the United States Senate as all 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to acquit. This was well short of the necessary two-thirds majority required for conviction.
In 2004, Starr stated that he regretted ever having asked the Department of Justice to assign him to oversee the Lewinsky investigation. He said, "the most fundamental thing that could have been done differently" would have been for somebody else to have investigated the matter.
After five years as independent counsel, Starr resigned and returned to private practice as an appellate lawyer and a visiting professor at New York University, the Chapman University School of Law, and the George Mason University School of Law. Starr worked as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in litigation. On April 6, 2004, he was appointed dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law. On February 15, 2010, Baylor University announced that Starr would become its president. He was introduced as the new president on June 1, 2010.
In September 2015, Baylor's Board of Regents initiated an external review of the university's response to reports of sexual violence. Baylor was accused of failing to respond to reports of rape and sexual assault filed by at least six female students from 2009 to 2016. Former football player Tevin Elliot was convicted of rape and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the offence. Another student, Sam Ukwuachu, was also convicted of rape, had that conviction overturned and was retried, only to see it reinstated by the Texas Court of Appeals in 2018. On May 26, 2016 the Board of Regents announced Starr's removal as university president, effective May 31. Starr said in an interviewer that he took that action "as a matter of conscience" and that he "willingly accepted responsibility", adding, "the captain goes down with the ship." Many called Starr a hypocrite for his role in covering up the Baylor Football sex scandal, taking into account how critical he was of Clinton in regards to Clinton's scandal.