Ken Starr, who headed the investigation that led to the impeachment of president Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, has died.
Mr Starr, 76, died in Houston, Texas, of complications from surgery, his family said in a statement.
A former judge and conservative legal stalwart, Mr Starr was best known for leading the probe that resulted in Mr Clinton's December 1998 impeachment by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Mr Clinton was acquitted by the Senate the following year.
Mr Starr's involvement with Mr Clinton began when he was appointed special counsel in 1994 to investigate a land deal known as Whitewater involving Bill and Hillary Clinton.
That expanded into a probe of the president's affair with the 24-year-old Ms Lewinsky, which Mr Clinton initially denied.
The so-called Starr Report documented the president's relationship with the White House intern in graphic detail and resulted in Mr Clinton being accused of perjury.
Mr Starr later wrote a book about the probe - "Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation" - and Time magazine chose Mr Clinton and Mr Starr as their "Men of the Year" in 1998.
Named a judge at the age of 37 by president Ronald Reagan, Mr Starr went on to serve as solicitor general from 1989 to 1993 under former president George H.W. Bush, arguing 25 cases before the Supreme Court.
Mr Starr served as president of Baylor University from 2010 to 2016, when he left over the handling of sexual assault cases by American football players at the Baptist school.
In January 2020, Mr Starr joined the legal team defending Republican president Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial before the Senate.
Like Mr Clinton, Mr Trump was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
Republican Senator minority leader Mitch McConnell praised Mr Starr as a "a brilliant litigator, an impressive leader, and a devoted patriot".
"Ken poured his remarkable energy and talent into promoting justice, defending the Constitution, and upholding the rule of law," Mr McConnell said in a statement.
Ms Lewinsky, in a February 2018 article in Vanity Fair, lashed out at the investigation which put her in the centre of a political firestorm.
She said she had a chance meeting with Mr Starr in December 2017 at a New York restaurant.
"I felt determined, then and there, to remind him that, 20 years before, he and his team of prosecutors hadn't hounded and terrorised just me but also my family," she said.
Looking for an apology, Ms Lewinsky said she told Mr Starr that while she wished she had made "different choices" she would have liked his office to have done the same.
Mr Starr gave an "inscrutable smile," Ms Lewinsky said, and replied "I know. It was unfortunate."
