The FBI probe into whether e-mails were deleted during a separate federal investigation of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's St. HOPE Academy has been closed without charges being filed.

Federal officials said Tuesday there was not enough evidence to support allegations that the e-mails were intentionally deleted while Johnson's nonprofit organization was being probed by federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin.

The decision appears to put to rest a controversy that has dogged Johnson since Walpin's investigation into St. HOPE's use of federal grant money first became public in April 2008.

"We're pleased that the FBI has determined what we knew all along – that there was no intentional wrongdoing by the mayor or anyone at St. HOPE," said mayoral spokesman Steve Maviglio. "It's time for this book to be closed and for everyone to move on."

Walpin, who was fired by President Barack Obama last summer amid controversy over his probe of Johnson, revealed Tuesday that he also had been cleared of overstepping his authority in the matter.

Now, he said, he wants his job back.

"It certainly is a vindication that I and my office – and it was mainly my office, the career staff – acted properly in connection with the investigation into St. HOPE," Walpin said.

"It takes away any basis belatedly set forth by the White House as a reason for my termination," he added.

Walpin, as inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, began investigating St. HOPE's use of federal grant money under the AmeriCorps program in 2008, when Johnson was running for mayor.

St. HOPE, based in Oak Park, runs an array of nonprofit endeavors, including schools, a development company, and Hood Corps, the urban program at the center of Walpin's investigation. Johnson founded St. HOPE and ran its programs until he stepped down last year to focus on his mayoral bid.

In the course of the investigation, Walpin's office accused St. HOPE of numerous violations, including using Hood Corps members, financed by federal grant money, to run personal errands for Johnson and diverting grant money into salaries for St. HOPE school employees.

Johnson won election last November despite the probe, and Walpin's aggressive investigation and attendant media attention eventually resulted in a rare rebuke of him by Lawrence G. Brown, who at the time was the acting U.S. attorney for Sacramento.

Brown's office decided after reviewing Walpin's evidence that there was no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Johnson or St. HOPE, and agreed to a civil settlement in which they would repay $400,000 in federal AmeriCorps funds.

Walpin publicly lambasted the settlement, and Brown sent a sharply worded complaint last April to a federal panel alleging that Walpin had "overstepped his authority," withheld "potentially significant information at the expense of determining the truth" and engaged in a campaign in the media that damaged the image of the AmeriCorps program.

"He sought to act as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier," Brown wrote in the April 29 letter.

As a result, the federal Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency opened a review of Walpin's actions. In early June, Obama said in a letter to Congress that he was firing Walpin because he had lost confidence in him.

The White House later said that his firing was prompted by his "confused, disoriented" state during a May meeting of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Walpin's job as inspector general was to investigate potential problems in federally funded programs, and he said he believed the decision to settle the St. HOPE case rather than pursue criminal charges stemmed from "media pressures and political considerations," including the fact that Johnson is seen as an Obama ally.

Members of Congress raised concerns about whether the firing was justified, but to date no hearings into the matter have been scheduled, and the White House reiterated Tuesday there was nothing improper in the decision to remove Walpin.

Call The Bee's Sam Stanton, (916) 321-1091.