Kenneth Starr, the polarizing former independent counsel who led a highly publicized investigation of then-President Bill Clinton, has died at the age of 76, according to his family.

He died at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston of complications from surgery, his family said.

The high-powered Washington lawyer, who also served as U.S. solicitor general and a federal judge during a decadeslong career in government, played a pivotal role in the investigation of the so-called Whitewater scandal that engulfed the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s and eventually led to the first impeachment of a president in more than a century.

Starr’s self-titled report on the probe included salacious details about Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, and accused the then-president of lying about his affair during a deposition — cementing Starr’s legacy as one of the most significant and controversial legal figures in American history.