First, the Good News

By Dan Goodgame/Washington

Starved for good news, the Clinton Administration got a double helping last week from Robert Fiske, the Whitewater special prosecutor. Reporting on the first phase of an investigation that began in January, Fiske concluded that White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster killed himself with a gunshot to the head last July 20, as police investigators reported at the time. Fiske confirmed that Foster suffered from severe depression, but found "no evidence that matters related to Whitewater" or other Clinton land and loan controversies "played any role in his death."

Fiske also declared that top aides to the President did nothing illegal when they met and phoned one another to express concern over a federal investigation into the collapse of an Arkansas savings and loan with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton. "The evidence," reported Fiske, "is insufficient to establish that anyone within the White House or Treasury acted with the intent to corruptly influence" an investigation by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency responsible for failed thrift institutions.

White House counsel Lloyd Cutler described President Clinton as "pleased that there was no basis for criminal proceedings." George Stephanopoulos, one of Clinton's closest political advisers and among those cleared of criminal wrongdoing, told TIME that Fiske's report is "not surprising, but of course, it's gratifying."

Back in March, TIME and other news organizations reported that Stephanopoulos on Feb. 25 separately phoned Treasury chief of staff Josh Steiner and Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman (then acting head of the RTC) to inquire angrily about the appointment of former Republican U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens -- a harsh Clinton critic -- to assist in the RTC investigation of Madison Guaranty, a failed Arkansas savings and loan whose proprietor had been a Clinton business partner and fund raiser. Officials familiar with those calls told investigators that Stephanopoulos asked whether Stephens could be dismissed. Stephanopoulos later explained that he was "just blowing off steam" and had no intent to interfere with the investigation. But other Clinton advisers told reporters in March that they feared that the Stephanopoulos call -- and some 20 other White House-Treasury conversations about the RTC probe between September and February -- might result in indictments for obstruction of justice. Those meetings and calls involved deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes, then White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and other top officials.

TIME and other publications prominently reported those fears and evidence supporting and rebutting them. Meanwhile some Republicans, radio talk-show hosts and televangelists continued spreading unsubstantiated rumors that Foster was murdered for political reasons. Last week Administration officials emphasized that Fiske's report should be read as a rebuke not only to Clinton's political enemies but also to TIME and other news outlets that "overblew" and "sensationalized" the prospect of criminal-obstruction charges.

Though Fiske cleared Clinton's aides of any such wrongdoing, those officials know that they cannot yet put the matter behind them. The White House and Treasury will now conduct separate inquiries into whether any officials violated ethical and procedural rules, including one that prohibits contact with regulatory agencies about cases "involving persons in the government or anything of particular interest to the questioner." Fiske noted that his inquiry was limited to criminal violations and that "we express no opinion on the propriety" of the contacts or whether they "constitute a breach of ethical rules or standards." Cutler reiterated last week a sentiment the President conceded in March. "Some of these contacts," he said, "may have been inadvisable, in hindsight."

By mid-July Fiske will report on whether White House officials obstructed the investigation into Foster's suicide by removing Whitewater files and other papers from his office. Shortly after that report, Congress will call top Clinton officials to testify on the Washington aspects of the Whitewater affair, in hearings that one official glumly predicted will be highly partisan, and "very rigorous and unpleasant." Fiske, meanwhile, will continue the Arkansas phase of his investigation into the Clintons' investments in the Ozarks real estate development known as Whitewater. Last week Representative James Leach, the Iowa Republican who has pressed the congressional inquiry, observed ominously that the Fiske report "covers about 5% of the Whitewater affair." For the moment, however, it is enough for the President and his partisans that they have emerged from their first formal test unscathed.

With reporting by NINA BURLEIGH/WASHINGTON