Gov. Charlie Crist and former chief of staff George LeMieux -- the subjects of a federal public corruption investigation -- have been cleared of allegations that they tried to thwart a state criminal probe into a Fort Lauderdale insurance company, according to sources familiar with the ongoing case.

Crist's selection of LeMieux to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez would not have been possible had LeMieux still been under scrutiny by federal prosecutors investigating alleged influence-peddling by Mutual Benefits and its former top executive.

LeMieux was in the cross-hairs of the investigation after a major Republican fundraiser working with the FBI made a secretly recorded phone call to LeMieux at the governor's office in 2007, trying to get LeMieux to implicate himself, sources said.

But the phone call backfired: LeMieux immediately reported it to Crist's general counsel, who called the FBI. Still, LeMieux remained under investigation through much of 2008, along with Crist and several other members of his inner circle from his tenure as Florida attorney general and then as governor.

PROBE REVELATIONS

Sources familiar with the case told The Miami Herald that Crist and Le-Mieux are among six current and former Florida public officials who have been cleared in the Justice Department's corruption probe. Also cleared: Paul Huck Jr., Crist's former general counsel and deputy attorney general.

LeMieux, contacted several times before his selection as senator, declined to comment. His lawyer, Marcos Jimenez, a former U.S. attorney in Miami, did not return calls seeking comment.

News of the corruption probe surfaced in late April when U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan revealed that the six Florida officials had been cleared of wrongdoing but that prosecutors were still scrutinizing others. He did not name anyone.

Huck confirmed to The Miami Herald last month that he was told by Justice officials he was among those cleared.

The investigation was launched by the Justice Department's public integrity section in 2007 on the word of Mutual Benefits' former chief Joel Steinger, who was trying to negotiate leniency as the target of a federal insurance-fraud probe. He alleged that Crist's team tried to help him and his top executives hinder a state crackdown on the firm, sources said.

To prosecutors in Washington, Steinger said he had schemed with an influential Hollywood eye doctor and GOP fundraiser, Alan Mendelsohn, to improperly influence state prosecutors and politicians scrutinizing Mutual Benefits from 2000 to 2005, sources said.

After Steinger turned on Mendelsohn, the ophthalmologist -- who had a reputation for boasting of his political connections -- tried to help his own defense by working with the FBI starting in the summer of 2007, the sources said.

Mendelsohn claimed that he was able to win over Crist, LeMieux, Huck and others on Steinger's behalf. Over the past decade, Mendelsohn and his political action committees raised more than $700,000 for political causes and state candidates -- including Crist's bid for governor in 2006.

To bolster his claim, Mendelsohn called Le-Mieux at the governor's office in July 2007. Le-Mieux, who served as a deputy attorney general under Crist, had just managed Crist's successful campaign for governor.

In the call, the doctor spoke about Mutual Benefits and how he had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for candidates and lobbyists to help the firm's legal and political efforts in Tallahassee, sources said.

To LeMieux, the call seemed suspicious, as if Mendelsohn were trying to implicate him, the governor and others, sources said. LeMieux alerted Huck, who called the FBI.

Investigators concluded that Mendelsohn's claims were without basis. Now, no longer a cooperating witness, he finds himself the target of the probe, sources said.

Mendelsohn and his defense lawyer, John Keker of San Francisco, declined to comment.

Steinger received immunity from Justice Department prosecutor Mary Butler, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, for the information he provided about his own conduct in the corruption case. That means it cannot be used against him in court.

But Steinger was not protected in the underlying insurance fraud case: A federal grand jury indicted him and others in December on charges of defrauding investors who bought $837 million in life-insurance policies previously held by people dying of AIDS and other illnesses. They have pleaded not guilty.

THE INDICTMENTS

If Steinger and Mendelsohn indeed had a scheme to influence Florida officials, it apparently met with mixed results: The statewide grand jury indicted Mutual Benefits for racketeering in 2004 and filed 20 criminal cases involving the viatical industry, including against policyholders who lied about their terminal illnesses and brokers who sold their death benefits to investors.

The statewide grand jury also issued a critical report recommending reforms to the Florida Legislature and Department of Insurance.

But the statewide prosecutor's office never charged Steinger or any other Mutual Benefits employees the past decade.

Eventually, prosecutors turned over their records to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which shut down Mutual Benefits in May 2004.