Overview
Kenneth Starr — the former federal appeals judge, Solicitor General, and Independent Counsel who led the Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton — joined Jeffrey Epstein’s defense team in the 2006–2008 period. His involvement was one of the most striking aspects of the high-powered legal representation Epstein assembled, given the irony that Starr’s most famous investigation had targeted the same Bill Clinton who later appeared on Epstein’s flight logs.
Starr’s Background Before the Epstein Case
Kenneth Starr had served as a federal appeals court judge on the D.C. Circuit, as Solicitor General under President George H.W. Bush, and most prominently as Independent Counsel (1994–1999) investigating the Clintons on matters that began with the Whitewater real estate controversy and expanded to include President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The Starr Report (1998) formed the basis for Clinton’s impeachment by the House (though Clinton was acquitted by the Senate).
After the independent counsel’s office concluded, Starr returned to private practice, becoming Dean of Pepperdine University School of Law and practicing at Kirkland & Ellis.
Role in the Epstein Defense
Starr joined the Epstein defense team that included Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Jay Lefkowitz, and Roy Black. The assembled team was extraordinary — each attorney was individually prominent, and their collective representation represented an extraordinary concentration of legal firepower.
Starr’s precise role in the NPA negotiations has not been fully documented in public sources, though he was identified as part of the team that engaged with federal prosecutors and DOJ headquarters during the 2007 period.
Later Career Fallout
In a separate controversy unrelated to Epstein, Starr was fired as President of Baylor University in 2016 after an independent review found that Baylor had failed to respond appropriately to sexual assault allegations against its football players. The Baylor situation was a significant fall from his post-Clinton career rehabilitation, and the Epstein association added to a legacy that had become complicated in multiple dimensions.
Starr died in September 2022.
The Irony of the Clinton Connection
The irony of Starr — who had devoted years to investigating Clinton — serving on the defense team for a man whose flights Clinton had taken was not lost on commentators. It illustrated how legal representation operates independently of political or personal relationships and how elite legal talent could be mobilized for any paying client.
Sources
NPA defense team documentation; coverage of Baylor University scandal (2016); Starr’s death September 2022; biographical reporting on the NPA defense team; Julie K. Brown, Perversion of Justice (2021).