Federal prosecutors will not bring charges against a former New York Post gossip writer.

The news comes nearly a year after a California billionaire accused a contributor to the Post’s Page 6, Jared Paul Stern, 35, of offering to keep Mr. Burkle’s name out of the Post in return for monthly payments, according to news reports.

“I have been informed by the U.S. attorney’s office that they are not proceeding with any case against Mr. Stern,” the lawyer for Mr. Stern, Joseph Tacopina, said in a statement yesterday. “We have said from day one that this was a campaign to spread lies based on false accusations fueled by Burkle’s personal vendetta against the New York Post and that there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on Mr. Stern’s part.”

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, Yusill Scribner, declined to comment.

Another source familiar with the investigation confirmed that the U.S. attorney’s office had indeed dropped the case.

Mr. Burkle’s allegations against Mr. Stern were made public in April, 2006. Private investigators for Mr. Burkle had videotaped at least two meetings last year in New York between Mr. Stern and Mr. Burkle at which the two discussed the Post’s occasionally negative coverage of the billionaire, according to news reports. At those meetings, Mr. Burkle alleged, Mr. Stern had demanded $100,000 and a $10,000 monthly fee in return for stopping gossip items from appearing in Page 6, according to news accounts. Mr. Stern has denied extorting Mr. Burkle.

The allegations drew attention to the chummy relationships that frequently developed between gossip writers and the people they cover.

A lawyer for Mr. Burkle did not immediately return a call for comment yesterday. Mr. Burkle, of California, became wealthy in supermarket chains and is a close friend of President Clinton’s.