SAN FRANCISCO – A California judge has dismissed Senator Clinton as a defendant in a long-running lawsuit brought by the underwriter of a major fund-raising gala for her 2000 campaign.

During an hour-long hearing Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Aurelio Munoz granted Mrs. Clinton’s motion to be dismissed from the case, in which a former Internet entrepreneur, Peter Paul, accuses the senator, President Clinton, and several associates of fraud.

Paul, who has four felony convictions, contends he spent $2 million to stage the August 12, 2000, fund-raiser, which featured performances by Cher, Patti LaBelle, and Michael Bolton. According to Paul, he offered the money as part of an agreement that after Mr. Clinton left office, he would work for Paul’s animation company, Stan Lee Media.

Paul has also asserted that a Democratic fund-raiser close to Mr. Clinton, James Levin, helped cause the demise of Stan Lee Media by stealing a key business contact cultivated by Paul.

In his ruling Friday, Judge Munoz complained that Paul’s legal team “inundated this court” with photos of Paul with the Clintons, President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, and others.

Paul “has failed to direct this court to any matters indicating Mrs. Clinton made any promises to him,” the judge wrote. “The most he can show is that promises were made by other people and those promises were never performed. Even assuming plaintiff can show the promises were with the intent not to perform, there is nothing to indicate Hillary Clinton was aware that the promises were not made in good faith.”

Mrs. Clinton sought dismissal of the case under a California law that allows lawsuits involving protected First Amendment activities to be thrown out at a preliminary stage.

Attorneys from a conservative group representing Paul, the United States Justice Foundation, asked that they be permitted to take Mrs. Clinton’s deposition before she was dismissed, but Judge Munoz refused.

While the senator was dismissed as a party to the suit, the lawsuit is expected to continue with Messrs. Clinton and Levin as defendants, as well as two producers of the gala, Aaron Tonken and Gary Smith. Judge Munoz set a trial date of March 27, 2007.

An attorney for Paul, Colette Wilson, said in an interview yesterday that Mrs. Clinton will still be called for a deposition as a witness in the case. Ms. Wilson said Judge Munoz indicated that any attempt to prevent Mrs. Clinton from being deposed would be “dead on arrival.”

Ms. Wilson said Paul is likely to appeal the dismissal of Mrs. Clinton, though such an appeal runs the risk that Paul would be required to pay the senator’s legal fees. “What Hillary was doing was trying to persuade him she was highly interested in his entering into a business deal with her husband,” Ms. Wilson said. “At the actual gala, they talked about it.”

A longtime personal attorney to the Clintons, David Kendall, attended Friday’s hearing and told the judge that many of Paul’s claims were untrue “whoppers.” Mr. Kendall declined to comment for this article.

In a declaration filed with the court last week, Mrs. Clinton said she remembered Paul from the gala, but did not recall any business proposals. “I have no recollection whatsoever of discussing any arrangement with him whereby he would support my campaign for the United States Senate in exchange for anything from me or then-President Clinton, and I do not believe that I made any such statements because I believe I would remember such a discussion if it had occurred,” she wrote.

The star-studded gala in the Los Angeles hills delivered more than $1 million to committees backing Mrs. Clinton’s Senate bid, but the event came at the price of a nasty and protracted hangover for the first lady and her aides. Days after the dinner and concert, the Washington Post reported that Paul had three criminal convictions on fraud and drug charges years earlier.

Paul’s publicly traded company soon ran into financial trouble and he departed for Brazil. He was indicted for stock fraud and spent more than two years in a dungeon-like Brazilian prison before being extradited to America, where he pleaded guilty to a securities charge last year. He is awaiting sentencing.

Separately, a top fund-raising official on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, David Rosen, was indicted in 2003 on charges that he caused the filing of false campaign finance reports about the Los Angeles gala. Prosecutors said Mr. Rosen knew the reports seriously understated Paul’s spending on the event by more than $1 million, but, after a three-week trial last year, a jury acquitted the Democratic fund-raising professional of all charges.

In addition, Mr. Levin has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges related to minority contracting fraud in Chicago.

Late last year, a fund-raising committee for Mrs. Clinton’s Senate bid agreed to pay a $35,000 penalty to settle charges the group underreported in-kind gifts for the gala by $700,000.The committee recently amended its filings, but Paul has said the campaign is still refusing to acknowledge that the bulk of the money for the gala came from him.

The new court ruling was first reported Saturday by a conservative Web site, WorldNetDaily.com.