Janet Reno, the first female US attorney general, who served eight years with president Bill Clinton, has died aged 78.
Ms Reno died in Miami of Parkinson's disease complications, according to her goddaughter, Gabrielle D'Alemberte.
She was diagnosed with the progressive central nervous system disorder in 1995.
Ms Reno served as the top US law enforcement official under Mr Clinton from 1993 to 2001, becoming the longest-tenured attorney general of the 20th Century.
The blunt-spoken Ms Reno authorised the deadly 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian cult compound at Waco, Texas just weeks into the job in 1993.
After a shootout that killed four federal agents and six members of the sect, authorities negotiated with cult leader David Koresh for 51 days.
She later authorised the 2000 seizure by federal agents of six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez from relatives in Miami, as well as the government's huge antitrust case against Microsoft in 1998.
The former Miami prosecutor, who was picked by Mr Clinton only after his first two choices for the job ran into trouble, exhibited an independent streak and a brusque manner that often upset the White House.
Ms Reno was attorney general throughout Mr Clinton's two terms as president and was in the job longer than anyone except William Wirt, who held it from November 1817 until March 1829.
After leaving Washington, Ms Reno returned to Florida and ran for governor in 2002, but lost in the Democratic primary.
Ms Reno was born on 21 July 1938 in Miami to parents who were newspaper reporters. She attended public schools in Miami and earned a chemistry degree at Cornell University in 1960.
She received her law degree from Harvard three years later and worked as a lawyer in Miami.
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