washington ken starr the prosecutor whose investigation led to the impeachment of former us president bill clinton in 1998 has died at age 76 his family said in a statement on tuesdaystarr died on tuesday in houston from complications from surgery his family saidstarr came to national prominence as the special prosecutor who investigated the sexandperjury scandal that led to thenpresident clintons impeachmentthe investigation into clintons affair with former white house intern monica lewinsky produced a booklength official document for congress that became a bestseller when commercially sold as the starr reportoffering startling glimpses of sexual trysts intermingled with the densest legalese the report found clintons attempt to cover up the affair offered grounds for impeachmentaccording to ms lewinsky she performed oral sex on the president on nine occasions on all nine of those occasions the president fondled and kissed her bare breasts the starr report said she called him handsome on occasion he called her sweetie baby or sometimes dearthe scandal centered on clintons attempt to cover up his relationship with lewinsky and the impeachment charges stemmed from his false denial of the relationship in his 1998 grand jury testimony and in a deposition in a sexual harassment case filed against him by paula jones of arkansas where clinton had been governoron dec 19 1998 the us house of representatives voted to impeach clinton only the second president until then to face this charge of wrongdoing a subsequent senate trial failed to remove him from officestarr repeatedly said that no one not even the us president was above the lawborn july 21 1946 in vernon texas starr was a clerk to former chief justice warren burger in 1974 and 1975 and in 1981 he became counselor to william french smith thenpresident ronald reagans first attorney generalin 1989 he became solicitorgeneral the us governments chief litigatorin that job he argued 25 cases including controversial lawsuits on abortion rights and school prayer before he became special prosecutor he was often mentioned as a republican presidents potential nominee to the us supreme court