Last Report in Probe on the Clintons

Writing the last official chapter in the $60-million criminal investigation of the Clintons, prosecutors filed a final report on the former president’s conduct in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.

Independent counsel Robert Ray’s report went to the panel of three federal appeals judges that has supervised the wide-ranging investigation of the Clintons since 1994.

The judges are keeping the report confidential until at least Jan. 11 to give Clinton and others named in it time to offer written rebuttals.

People named in the document must make an appointment at the U.S. Courthouse if they want to review sections of the report that refer to them.

On the former president’s last day in office, he struck a deal with Ray to avoid a possible perjury or obstruction of justice indictment. Clinton admitted making false statements under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky and agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license.

Julie Thomas, a spokeswoman for Ray, declined to comment Tuesday.

Ray’s office still must complete the process of archiving the voluminous record of the criminal investigation, which has taken place in Little Rock, Ark., as well as in Washington.

Ray also will prepare court filings when people who were investigated by the prosecutors but never indicted ask the court to reimburse their attorney fees.

Ray’s final report on the Clintons’ Whitewater land venture will be released this year.

Ray decided there was not enough evidence to prove that Clinton or his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), broke the law in connection with Whitewater or the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan operated by their business partners.

While Sen. Clinton was a partner at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, she performed work for the collapsing savings and loan owned by the Clintons’ partners in the Whitewater land venture, James B. and Susan McDougal.

Sen. Clinton’s work remained a mystery until her law firm billing records turned up--under still-unexplained circumstances--in the White House in 1996, two years after being subpoenaed.