The chairman of the Senate panel investigating campaign fund-raising abuses suspended hearings Friday after nearly four months, saying he believes they established that President Clinton politically exploited the White House in ways his Republican predecessors never did.

The hearings thus wrap up with mixed results: plenty of information showing that the Clinton White House aggressively pursued campaign money, often providing coffees with the president and overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom for top donors, and that large Democratic donations, sometimes originating from overseas or ineligible givers, were laundered through and contributed in the names of other persons.

Yet despite early promises by (Fred) Thompson, the hearings produced no hard information about Chinese espionage aimed at influencing U.S. elections last year with an infusion of cash. Nor did they prove conclusively campaign contributions were exchanged for policy actions by the Clinton administration or that the president or others had violated federal law.