LOS ANGELES – A federal judge yesterday largely rebuffed an effort by lawyers for the finance director of Senator Clinton’s 2000 campaign to have a criminal indictment against their client thrown out in advance of trial.

Judge A. Howard Matz signaled that he was prepared to dismiss only one of the four felony counts the fund-raiser, David Rosen, is facing in connection with allegedly false reports that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The charges stem from an August 2000 gala, billed as a Hollywood tribute to President Clinton, that raised funds for Mrs. Clinton’s senate bid. Mr. Rosen, 38, is accused of understating expenses and in-kind donations to the event by hundreds of thousands of dollars. He has pleaded not guilty.

Before the hour-long hearing, Judge Matz distributed a tentative ruling to the lawyers in the case. It was not made public, but the outlines of the judge’s opinion became clear as the attorneys tried to sway the judge from his inclinations.

Judge Matz indicated that he planned to toss out a count of the indictment that alleges Mr. Rosen provided a false invoice to campaign officials. The judge said it was too difficult to distinguish that allegation from the broader claim that Mr. Rosen deceived the campaign about the financial details of the event.

A prosecutor on the case, Daniel Schwager, said the invoice is just one piece of proof the government plans to use at trial. “It’s certainly not the only evidence that will be presented,” he said.

An attorney for Mr. Rosen, Michael Doyen, rejected the judge’s suggestion that Mr. Rosen may have been “lulling” the campaign into filing false reports. “I don’t think there is any evidence that Mr. Rosen made any effort to lull anybody,” Mr. Doyen said.

Judge Matz did not appear to be persuaded by the defense’s arguments that the case should have been brought in Washington, that lying to the Federal Election Commission is not a crime, and that the government acted improperly by keeping Mr. Rosen’s indictment under seal for more than a year.

The judge did order prosecutors to file a sworn statement backing up their claim that unsealing the indictment could have interfered with other investigations that were ongoing at the time.

Mr. Rosen, who lives in Chicago, was in court for yesterday’s hearing but declined a request for an interview. The judge said he was “a little surprised” that the case was filed in Los Angeles. Tell me why we’re here,” Judge Matz said to the government lawyers. “This is a case of lies that were told from L.A. that caused false statements to be made at the Federal Election Commission,” Mr. Schwager replied.