The defendants in a lawsuit filed by a former New York Post gossip writer, Jared Paul Stern, include names as bold-faced as they come: President and Senator Clinton.

Mr. Stern, who wrote for the Post’s Page Six column, accused the Clintons yesterday of using their influence to spur on a federal investigation into whether Mr. Stern blackmailed a frequent gossip subject. The investigation, which did not result in charges, began last year with allegations by a California billionaire, Ronald Burkle, who is a friend of Mr. Clinton’s. Mr. Burkle claimed to have videotaped Mr. Stern as the writer offered him favorable coverage in return for cash.

Mr. Stern has denied any wrongdoing and has long promised to sue Mr. Burkle. In yesterday’s legal complaint, filed in state court in Manhattan, Mr. Stern accused the Clintons of using “their influence and position with federal authorities in New York to further” Mr. Burkle’s allegations against him.

When called for comment, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton, Jay Carson, said: “I’m not going to dignify this thing with a comment.”

Mr. Carson said he spoke on behalf of Mrs. Clinton, as well.

In the suit, Mr. Stern accused the Clintons of having a personal motive in seeing him investigated. The couple, the suit alleges, sought to “destroy Page Six of the New York Post and the New York Post in general.”

The paper, which has been critical of Mr. Clinton, was “perceived as a significant impediment” to the “Clintons’ return to the White House,” the suit alleges. By going after the gossip writer, the legal complaint claims, the Clintons intended to “divert and intimidate journalists who might attempt to report” on any scandals “uncovered about Hillary Clinton as she runs for the presidency in 2008.”

One of Mr. Stern’s attorneys, Larry Klayman, has devoted much of his legal career to suing Mr. Clinton. Mr. Klayman is the founder of a conservative government watchdog, Judicial Watch.

Mr. Klayman said yesterday that the legal complaint “speaks for itself.” The complaint itself offers no evidence linking the Clintons to the Stern investigation.

The complaint does include several gossip items, such as the disclosure of an attorney who Mr. Stern says was a source for Page Six tips. The suit claims that a former Secret Service agent under President Clinton, Frank Renzi, now works for Mr. Burkle and played a role in videotaping meetings between Messrs. Stern and Burkle.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors told Mr. Stern’s attorney that they did not intend to file charges. At the center of the investigation were tapes made by Mr. Burkle’s security team that allegedly showed Messrs. Stern and Burkle discussing ways to keep his name out of Page Six. The meetings came after a series of gossip items involving Mr. Burkle.

A spokesman for the New York office of the FBI, which has never confirmed that it was investigating Mr. Stern, declined to comment when asked whether the New York office had received a call from the Clintons regarding the case.

The spokesman, James Margolin, said, “The FBI opens an investigation when there is a sufficient factual predicate to open an investigation, and that’s the only way we do it.”

The suit accuses the defendants of “injurious falsehood” and the “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” among other claims.

The suit also names Mr. Burkle and the New York Daily News, among others, as defendants. Mr. Stern no longer works at the Post; he lives in upstate New York and is writing a book.