Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated former President Bill Clinton and his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s, doesn’t believe he owes the former White House intern an apology for the way he treated her during the course of his probe.
“No. With all due respect, Monica — and I wish her all of the best, her life has been disrupted,” Starr started, during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“But the evidence is the evidence and she was part, as we saw it, of an effort to obstruct justice and to commit perjury,” he continued.
Starr wrote the Starr Report in 1998, which alleged Clinton lied about his relationship with Lewinsky in sworn testimony. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges by the Senate during congressional impeachment proceedings.
Starr’s comments follow a week of bad press for Clinton as he promotes the novel he wrote with James Patterson, The President is Missing.
Clinton received backlash on Monday for telling NBC he did not need to privately apologize to Lewinsky over his handling of the affair. The 42nd president added he would not approach the scandal any differently in the wake of the #MeToo movement because he was exonerated by the facts.
Clinton has used subsequent appearances to walk back his initial remarks and offer Lewinsky more public apologies.
Lewinsky, who claims she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of Starr’s investigation, now speaks out against cyberbullying.
