Former Attorney General Janet Reno is dead at 78

Janet Reno, pictured in 2004, is dead at 78

(Image credit: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 7 November 2016

Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general, died on Monday from complications of Parkinson's disease, her sister, Maggy Hurchalla, tells CNN. She was 78. Reno, appointed by Bill Clinton, was at the center of several political firestorms during the Clinton administration, starting with the botched 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas, and ending with the controversial seizure of 5-year-old Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez in 2000. Reno discovered she had Parkinson's in 1995, only two years into her tenure, but still became the second-longest-serving attorney general in U.S. history, after William Wirt in the early 1800s.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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