Bill Clinton impeachment investigator Ken Starr dies aged 76

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Ken Starr has died aged 76. Credit: PA

Ken Starr, the man whose investigation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton, has died aged 76.

The former prosecutor suffered complications following surgery, his family confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.

Starr worked as the special prosecutor who investigated the sex-and-perjury scandal that resulted in President Clinton's impeachment.

The investigation revolved around Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. Starr produced a lengthy report for Congress and it would go on to be a bestseller.

The report included Clinton’s sexual trysts, and found the former president attempted to cover up the affair, which formed grounds for impeachment.

The scandal was focused on Clinton's attempt to conceal the relationship with Lewinsky. Ultimately, the charges were based on a false denial of the relationship in his 1998 testimony and in a deposition in a sexual harassment case filed against him by Paula Jones of Arkansas where Clinton had been governor.

Monica Lewinsky, left, and Bill Clinton, right, had an affair during his presidency. Credit: PA

In 1998, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton but a Senate trial failed to remove him from office.

Born in 1946, Starr was a clerk to former Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1974 and 1975, and in 1981, worked under William French Smith, then-President Ronald Reagan's attorney general.

In 1989, he became solicitor-general, the US government's chief litigator.Prior to being named special prosecutor, he was discussed as a Republican nominee to the US Supreme Court.