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In a statement issued Wednesday, the Office of Independent Counsel announced Shaheen's decision and the endorsement of it by the two former federal judges to whom Shaheen reported. According to the release, Shaheen found that "many of the allegations, suggestions and insinuations regarding the tendering and receipt of things of value were shown to be unsubstantiated or, in some cases, untrue."

The OIC release also said Shaheen had determined that "no prosecution be brought in this matter as there is insufficient credible evidence to support criminal charges. In some instances there is little if any credible evidence establishing that a particular thing of value was demanded, offered or received. In other instances, there is insufficient credible evidence to show that a thing of value was provided or received with the criminal intent defined by any of the applicable statutes."

Although the Office of Special Review headed by Shaheen has made no announcement, its decision first emerged in a letter Tuesday to David G. Bowden, the Little Rock, Ark., lawyer who represented Hale during the probe. Both Shaheen's letter and the Wednesday statement from the OIC indicate that with the acceptance of Shaheen's findings by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, the investigation "is now concluded." Bowden was unavailable for comment at press time.

It was unclear when or whether Shaheen or the OIC will make public any of the 168-page written report of the counsel's findings. But the few conclusory sentences quoted by the OIC release leave many questions unanswered about Hale's acknowledged relationship with his right-wing benefactors, and how much Shaheen discovered about it.

The probe by Shaheen, who formerly headed the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, was initiated in the spring of 1998, following reports by Salon and the Associated Press that Hale had received cash, lodging, the use of an automobile and other benefits from individuals associated with the "Arkansas Project" -- a secretive, four-year, $2.4 million anti-Clinton project funded by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife through the American Spectator magazine.

Both Hale and Scaife were among the witnesses called by Shaheen to testify before a grand jury in Fort Smith, Ark., last fall. The OIC statement indicated that Shaheen and his staff contacted more than 160 people in the course of their inquiry.

A former Little Rock municipal judge convicted of embezzling more than $2 million from his federally backed loan company, Hale became a frequent guest at an Arkansas bait shop and fishing resort operated by Parker Dozhier, a local right-wing activist and part-time employee of the Arkansas Project.

Dozhier's former girlfriend, Caryn Mann, and her son, Joshua Rand, both said that in addition to providing Hale with free housing and a car, Dozhier had frequently provided him with cash payments.

Dozhier and several other operatives of the Arkansas Project were themselves paid thousands of dollars between 1993 and 1997, with funds funneled through the Spectator from foundations controlled by Scaife, a virulent critic of the president who also financed other, separate anti-Clinton efforts.

Next page | Right-wing conspirators can breathe easier now