Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged “remorse” for his role in the events that led to his impeachment and acquittal Wednesday, even as he renewed his attacks on his old nemesis, former independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

“I expressed my remorse at the time,” the former president told a Manhattan audience during a childhood obesity event Wednesday afternoon. “And my remorse does not have anything to do with whether what was done was legal or constitutional.”

Rather, Clinton went on to decry the alleged excesses of the independent counsel’s office that investigated him on a broad array of allegations, ranging from purported improprieties in Arkansas real estate transactions to allegations of perjury relating to his sexual indiscretions.

“No serious, objective observer doubts that there was rampant, flagrant abuse of power” in those probes, Clinton said, adding that “a lot of the people who should have been commenting on it were stunningly silent.”

The comments came after Clinton was asked about a new book revisiting his legal and constitutional battles against Starr in the complex of scandals that consumed the latter part of the Clinton presidency. The former president said he has not read "The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr," written by Ken Gormley and published Tuesday by Crown Books....