WASHINGTON – A nonpartisan anti-corruption watchdog group is increasing pressure on Senator Clinton following the indictment of her former chief fund-raiser.

On Friday, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against David Rosen, charging him with filing false reports with the Federal Election Commission relating to a celebrity-packed dinner and concert in Los Angeles in August 2000.

The group, Judicial Watch, wants the government to investigate whether Mrs. Clinton knew about the alleged misrepresentations.

“We believe that the Justice Department should investigate this whole matter, and if it is found that Hillary Clinton knew about all this, then she should be indicted,” a spokesman for Judicial Watch, David Warner, said.

“It seems inconceivable that she didn’t know about it, but we don’t know that for a fact,” Mr. Warner said.

According to a 2002 FBI affidavit, Mr. Rosen misstated the financial information in order to circumvent federal campaign finance laws and to enable more of the money raised to flow to Mrs. Clinton’s 2000 Senate race against Republican candidate Richard Lazio.

The Justice Department indicated that Mrs. Clinton is not under investigation but did not say whether she had been in the past or would be in the future.

“There are no other subjects of the investigation related to the August 2000 events at this time,” a Justice Department official said yesterday.

Mrs. Clinton has declared her intention to run for reelection in 2006, and she is being touted as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. The faintest whiff of impropriety represents potential fodder to her opponents.

The indictment already touched off partisan sparring over the weekend.

“Is anyone really surprised that another Clinton confidante has been indicted?” said the chairman of the New York State Republican Party, Stephen Minarik.

“Hillary Clinton’s public life reads like an instruction manual for breaking the rules,” he said in comments quoted in the New York Daily News. “New Yorkers deserve better.”

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said through a statement by lawyer David Kendall that it expects the matter to be dropped.

“The Senate Campaign Committee has fully cooperated with the investigation. Mr. Rosen worked hard for the Campaign, and we trust that when all the facts are in he will be cleared,” Mr. Kendall said.

The Justice Department confirmed that the fund-raising committee has cooperated with the investigation by the Public Integrity Section.

The charges have yet to be proven in court, and it is unclear whether they will taint the senator’s political future.

“Even if she doesn’t get implicated, this is a serious campaign violation. But many campaigns have serious campaign violations and survive those things,” said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that tracks political contributions.

“If the candidate is involved, it could pose a serious problem. If she was to be convicted of something, then it is hard to survive,” Mr. Noble said.

Candidates are not necessarily aware of misconduct by aides, said Mr. Noble. “I’ve seen it go both ways. I’ve seen cases where the candidate is close enough to fund-raisers to know, and other cases where they didn’t pay close enough attention.”

The indictment unsealed at Los Angeles charged David Rosen with four counts of filing false reports with the FEC. The charges stem from an August 12, 2000, Hollywood fund-raising event while Mrs. Clinton was still first lady. The money went to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign committee, as well as the Democrats’ national Senate campaign organization and a state Democratic Party committee.

The event is alleged to have cost over $1.2 million, paid for with more than $1.1 million of “in-kind” contributions, or donated goods and services. The indictment charges that Mr. Rosen reported the in-kind contributions to be only around $400,000, knowing this figure to be false.

In one instance, Mr. Rosen is charged with obtaining and delivering to the committee a fraudulent invoice stating that the cost of the concert portion of the event was $200,000, when he knew that the figure had no basis in fact. The concert portion of the event itself cost over $600,000, according to the Justice Department. Mr. Rosen faces up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines on each of four counts of making a false statement.

The indictment came with the help of a disgruntled Clinton contributor, Peter Paul, who has a criminal history and is currently confined at the Nassau County jail awaiting trial on stock fraud charges. Mr. Paul is suing the Clintons for millions of dollars in damages relating to what he claims was a fund-raising deal between him and the former president.

Mr. Paul, a former Hollywood Internet entrepreneur and partner of Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, spent nearly $2 million to produce the Hollywood tribute to honor President Clinton and to help raise funds for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate campaign. The event included entertainers such as Diana Ross and Cher.

Mr. Paul was repeatedly assured that his expenses would be reported to the Federal Election Commission, according to Judicial Watch, the same group which is also suing Vice President Cheney for access to records of closed doors meetings of his energy task force.

Mr. Paul’s expenditures were part of a $17 million deal with Mr. Clinton in which the former president agreed to promote Mr. Paul’s company after he left the White House in exchange for Mr. Paul’s fund-raising efforts for Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Warner said.

Judicial Watch brought a lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of Mr. Paul against the Clintons and their representatives, alleging that Mr. Clinton reneged on the deal and that Mr. Paul’s expenses were not reported by Hillary Clinton to the FEC, as was required by law.

The group says Mr. Paul has vast documentary evidence of his close relationship with the Clintons.

The Clintons have denied any wrongdoing.