After three days of deliberations, the jury cleared Mr. Carey of charges that he had lied 63 times to federal officials and a grand jury investigating improper fund-raising in his 1996 re-election campaign.

Representatives of more than two dozen nonprofit lobbying groups said today that they would not comply with subpoenas for information about their activities issued by the Senate committee investigating political fund-raising.

The decision not to seek an independent counsel for Mr. Freeh occurred just weeks before it appears Ms. Reno first declined to seek an independent counsel to investigate Democratic fund-raising.

Mr. Lott and other Republicans have sharply criticized Ms. Reno in the past for her refusal to have an independent counsel investigate Democratic fund-raising in the 1996 campaign and other issues.

But her resume also includes prominent partisan positions, like counsel to Republicans on House and Senate committees that investigated alleged Clinton Administration ethical improprieties and Democratic fund-raising.

But magistrates investigating illicit fund-raising were nevertheless interested enough on Friday to search the offices of the journalist who helped Mr. Mery make his tape.

Still, the bumpy voyage of Ms. Vasquez's donation has caught the interest of Federal prosecutors handling the teamsters' case, and the House panel investigating fund-raising.

Democrats suggested that any effort to weaken the commission would undermine Republican calls for an independent counsel to investigate fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in 1996.

One House committee investigating political fund-raising has already voted to hold Ms. Reno in contempt.

Mr. Freeh disagreed with Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to seek an independent counsel to investigate Democratic fund-raising in the Presidential race.