Kenneth Starr

Kenneth Starr

Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr (born July 21, 1946 in Vernon , Texas ) is an American lawyer and former judge .

Starr was appointed Independent Investigator to investigate President Bill Clinton's Whitewater transactions . He later submitted an investigative report, the so-called Starr Report, to the US Congress , which led to the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton on allegations based on the Lewinsky affair .

He was also involved in the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump , this time on the side of the President.

Life

Kenneth Starr was born to a Church of Christ minister and temporary hairdresser. He enrolled at Harding University , but later moved to George Washington University , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1968. He later enrolled at Brown University , graduated from there in 1969 with a master's degree and attended Duke University , which he graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1973 . From 1973 to 1974 he was employed by the 5th Federal District Judge David W. Dyer , which was followed by an employment with Supreme Federal Judge Warren E. Burger from 1975 to 1977 . In 1977 he joined the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles , where he worked for their Washington office. In 1981 he was appointed advisor to US Attorney General William French Smith .

Prior to his appointment as Independent Investigator, Starr was a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1989 and represented the US federal government as the United States Solicitor General before the Supreme Court from 1989 to 1993 . As a judge, Starr was respected by both political parties and viewed as moderately conservative with an attentive eye for press freedom . Prior to his appointment as an Independent Investigator, he was frequently traded as a potential candidate for the Supreme Court.

Term as Independent Investigator

In 1994, Starr was appointed by a three-person panel of judges to continue the Whitewater Inquiry and replace Robert B. Fiske , who was specially appointed to the Attorney General's position prior to the Independent Investigator Act's entry into force. His powers went very far and he was given the right to summon almost anyone who he believed could provide relevant information on various scandals that he was tasked with clearing up. Initially, Clinton and his wife were suspected of tax evasion and advantage .

Although his legal reputation initially earned him popularity in the investigation, especially in its aggressive momentum in the fight against political corruption in Arkansas - have their summit in the successful prosecution of fraud the then convicted governor of Arkansas , Jim Guy Tucker , as well as Clinton's real estate investment brokers James and Susan McDougal - his performance in office was controversial when his powers were extended to investigate Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Supporters of the Democrats demonstrated against Starr political zealots in his quest to drive away from the Clinton presidency. They accused him of pursuing investigations into traces on the periphery of the Whitewater Complex, such as the controversy over the related FBI files and the suicide of Vince Foster , only to harm Clinton. The FBI went so far as to restore love letters that Monica Lewinsky wrote on her PC, but never sent, but deleted.

Susan McDougal accused his team on the documentary show The Hunting of the President of blackmailing them into a lie under oath just to support the allegations against Clinton. The now defunct magazine Brill's Content accused Starr's office of having leaked a testimony to the grand jury and thereby violating the federal criminal procedure code. At the instigation of Clinton's lawyers, US District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ordered an investigation into the allegation in July 1998.

Starr's office countered that the incriminated information was not exclusively available to him, but also to Clinton's attorneys, who monitored the grand jury's dealings with the witnesses' attorneys and who, for strategic reasons, leaked the information to neutralize the damage and to embarrass Starr. Starr also argued that much of the evidence harmful to the president, including the results of his blood test, was unknown to Clinton's lawyers and did not leak. The Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, DC ruled Judge Johnson wrongly set a precedent decision and reversed her judicial decision allowing Clinton's attorneys to investigate the accused "chats". After an investigation conducted by a specially appointed special investigator, it ruled that there was no evidence to support the allegation that Starr's office leaked information from the grand jury. Yet public confidence in Starr's administration was shattered.

Charles Bakaly , official spokesman for Starr's office, resigned on March 11, 1999 on charges of "chatting," but was acquitted on October 6, 2000. Starr's investigation led to political impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, which is why Starr was named Time Magazine 's Man of the Year in 1998 . President Clinton was acquitted of both impeachment charges by the US Senate and was able to continue his term in office until the end of January 2001.

Starr expressed regret that the Justice Department had accepted the mandate to lead the Lewinsky investigation; he saw " by far the most important thing that could have been done differently " in the fact that someone else was entrusted with this investigation.

After the term of office

After five years as an Independent Investigator, Starr resigned and resumed his work as an appeal lawyer. Starr is now a partner in the law firm Kirkland & Ellis . He is a leading advocate on mass lawsuits by a coalition of liberal and conservative groups (including the American Civil Liberties Association ( ACLU) and the Gun Lobby NRA ) against the campaign funding provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, known as the McCain-Feingold Act . In this case, Starr took the legal view that the law was an unconstitutional curtailment of the right to free speech.

On April 6, 2004, he was appointed Dean of the Law School of Pepperdine University . The office was originally offered to him in 1996, but he did not accept the appointment because of the Lewinsky controversy in 1998 when it required his full concentration. Critics alleged that there was a conflict of interest because of the significant support given to Pepperdine University by Clinton critic and billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife , who sponsored many media outlets targeting the president. He became Louise L. Morrison Professor of Constitutional Law.

In 2005, Starr campaigned to overturn the death sentence of Robin Lovitt , who was on Virginia's death row on conviction of robbery and murder in 1998. Starr represented Lovitt on a pro bono basis . On October 3, 2005, the Supreme Federal Court denied the absolute freedom of doubt. Lovitt was pardoned and his sentence was commuted to life in prison with no early release by Governor Mark Warner on November 29, 2005.

On February 15, 2010, Baylor University announced that it would appoint Starr as its 14th President. Starr was supposed to replace John Lilley, who had been replaced in mid-2008. Starr's inauguration as the new president took place on June 1, 2010.

In September 2015, the university was charged with concealing the rape of two students by players on the Baylor football team. In connection with this sex scandal, Starr was fired in May 2016. He was succeeded by David E. Garland .

Donald Trump appointed Starr to his defense team in January 2020 for the impeachment trial against him in the Senate.

Web links

• Interview with Kenneth Starr
• Kenneth Starr in the nndb (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Starr, in New Role, Gives Hope to a Needy Death Row Inmate" - The Washington Post , March 14, 2005
2. ↑ [1]
3. ^ Statement from the Press Secretary Announcing the President's Senate Trial Counsel. In: White House. January 17, 2020, accessed on January 27, 2020 .