Feds Close Clinton Clemency Probe

The federal government has closed its probe — with no charges filed — into former President Bill Clinton's grants of clemency to four men accused of bilking the government of millions of dollars, authorities said Thursday.

U.S. Attorney James B. Comey said his office's investigation into other pardons that Mr. Clinton issued just before leaving office will continue.

Comey's decision to end the investigation of clemency for the men from the Rockland County Hasidic community of New Square takes the spotlight off Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who received overwhelming support from the insular community in her 2000 bid for the Senate.

During the election, she won 1,400 of New Square's 1,412 votes. Two months later, over the objections of prosecutors, President Clinton commuted the sentences of four men from the village who had been convicted of stealing from federal anti-poverty programs.

The 1999 convictions that underlie the probe stemmed from the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars in federal aid intended for housing, education and business. Federal prosecutors said the four men used the money to enrich their community and themselves.