# Starr Report > [!abstract] 🏛️ Official government report > **Issued by:** Independent Counsel [[Ken Starr]] · **Legal basis:** 28 U.S.C. § 595(c), the [[Independent Counsel]] provisions of the [[Ethics in Government Act]] · **Delivered to the House:** September 9, 1998 · **Made public:** September 11, 1998 *Referral from Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr in Conformity with the Requirement of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595(c).* Roughly 450 pages setting out **eleven possible grounds for the impeachment** of [[Bill Clinton]] — perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and abuse of power — arising from the Monica Lewinsky matter. It became the basis for the [[Clinton Impeachment]]. ## Not a special-counsel report Starr was an **independent counsel**, appointed by a three-judge court under a statute that let the counsel report directly to Congress whenever he found "substantial and credible information" that might be grounds for impeachment. Today's [[Special Counsel]] reports privately to the Attorney General under a Justice Department regulation, and the Attorney General decides what Congress and the public see. The statute behind the Starr Report expired in 1999, and the backlash against this report is part of why it was not renewed. ## Release The House voted 363–63 to publish the referral, and it went online two days after delivery — among the first government documents read by millions of people on the internet. ## Controversies Critics charged that the report's sexual detail went far beyond what the legal case required, that Starr's office had leaked to the press, and that an investigation opened over the Whitewater land deal had strayed far from its mandate. In 2020 Starr served on [[Donald Trump]]'s impeachment defense team and argued positions at odds with his own 1998 referral. ## See Also - [[Ken Starr]] · [[Clinton Impeachment]] · [[Independent Counsel]] · [[Ethics in Government Act]] · [[Special Counsel]] · [[Reports Hub]]