After seven years and $70 million, the Whitewater independent counsel said Wednesday there was insufficient evidence that former President Clinton and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton did anything illegal or profited from a looted Arkansas savings and loan institution.
Counsel Robert Ray said his office would not bring criminal charges on any of the long list of allegations that were pursued by him and his predecessor, Kenneth Starr.
His final report brings an inconclusive end to one of the most costly, confusing and controversial investigations in American history.
The Whitewater issue dogged Clinton during his 1992 run for the presidency, and the criminal probe loomed over the White House for most of his time there.
It led directly to his impeachment in 1998, even though the allegations lodged against him had nothing to do with the Arkansas financial fraud that started it all.
The Whitewater investigation proved to be disappointment to Clinton's critics, while his supporters viewed it as an infuriating abuse of power.
Ray, who is running for the Republican Senate nomination in New Jersey, applauded the fairness and thoroughness of his office. He said his investigators examined 10 million pages of documents and interviewed under oath more than 3,000 witnesses. Ray also defended the man he succeeded. \No more decent individual graced this office"" than Starr, he said.
""The allegations [against the Clintons] were credible, substantial and required a thorough investigation to resolve them,"" Ray wrote. ""Indeed, the principal value of the independent counsel law was to ensure public acceptance of a decision not to prosecute. This does not mean that the impetus for the investigation was 'bogus' or that the allegations were a 'fraud.'""
