Attorney Says FBI Probe Clears Nevada Gov. Gibbons

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, whose first term has been marred by an FBI corruption investigation, has been cleared of wrongdoing and will not be charged in the probe, his attorney said Sunday night.

Gibbons, a former Republican congressman, has been under investigation into whether he improperly received gifts from a software company that received military contracts while he was in Congress. Gibbons steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and said the Justice Department could look as hard as it wanted and wouldn't find anything inappropriate.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell said the Justice Department told him that Gibbons would not be charged. Such assurances are commonplace when prosecutors have completed a case.

"The prosecutors in the case confirmed what the governor has been saying for the past two years — that he did nothing wrong and there was no basis for any allegations against him," defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a prepared statement.

The Justice Department had no comment on Lowell's assertion Sunday. But a law enforcement official close to the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because authorities have not even officially acknowledged the investigation, confirmed the substance of Lowell's statement.

"I anticipated this would be the result," Gibbons said in a telephone interview Sunday. "This is taking a little of the weight off my shoulders. I hope the public is starting to see that the partisan attacks and attacks of personal destruction against me are false."

The first-term Nevada governor scheduled a Monday news conference in Carson City to discuss the Justice Department decision.

The investigation arose from allegations by a former employee at eTreppid Technologies LLC, who said company founder Warren Trepp lavished Gibbons with money and a Caribbean cruise in exchange for help winning defense contracts for the company. But the credibility of the employee, Dennis Montgomery, was put in doubt after a computer expert questioned the authenticity of e-mails he claimed proved Gibbons was accepting freebies.