Evans' suit was unsuccessful and, as many newspapers reported the scandalous allegations aired in court, the Pennsylvania Klan suffered a serious decline in membership and support.

Armando Garcia, a lawyer for Mr. Barnes, asked why his client should be held based on "disgraceful, scandalous, scurrilous allegations" with no evidence introduced at the hearing to back them up.

Yet polls also indicate that the same electorate that "approves" of Clinton's presidency suspects that many of the scandalous allegations against him are true.

"We've established enough organizations whose distinctive competence is investigating and publicizing scandalous allegations of various sorts," said Suzanne Garment, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a research group.

Because Russia has no libel laws to speak of, a politician's opponents often create blogs that make the most lurid and scandalous allegations, with no basis in fact.

Others have directed readers to Glenn Greenwald at salon.com for his appraisal of these scandalous allegations published as fact.

Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine angrily told Mrs. Arbour that the French authorities were shocked by what he termed "scandalous allegations that Serbian war criminals could feel at ease in the French sector," his spokeswoman said.

Because many of the other people charged in the investigation have also reached plea agreements, the public may never get to hear some of the most scandalous allegations in a courtroom.

The most scandalous allegation, leveled last year by one of Miss Duke's private nurses, is that Mr. Lafferty conspired with others to kill Miss Duke with a drug overdose.