The finding follows an investigation Ashcroft's office opened in December into the alleged misuse of public resources.

The American Democracy Legal Fund filed a complaint with the secretary of state's office in the waning days of the 2018 midterms, when Hawley, then attorney general, faced Democrat Claire McCaskill for a U.S. Senate seat.

“Based on the documents my office reviewed, and the interviews conducted, I cannot say that there is reasonable trustworthy information that an offense has been committed," Ashcroft, a Republican, wrote. "As such, I decline to issue a statement of probable cause and this investigation is considered closed.

"ADLF alleges Attorney General Hawley used outside consultants to direct AGO (attorney general's office) employees to raise his profile," the report says. "However, the consultants were used to advance Attorney General Hawley's priorities as Attorney General for the State of Missouri. There is nothing showing that the consultants were used to promote him as a candidate."

The legal fund alleged that Hawley broke the law when his outside political consultants, Gail Gitcho and Timmy Teepell, directed taxpayer-paid staff in the attorney general's office after Hawley took office as attorney general in 2017.

The use of outside consultants was first reported by the Kansas City Star in the closing days of the 2018 elections.

Asked if he felt vindicated, Hawley said: "Totally, absolutely. It was complete and total vindication.”

"Josh Hawley used the Attorney General's office to advance his political ambitions and the latest scandal over his use of state owned vehicles for his campaign underscores that point. The Secretary of State got this wrong but thankfully people across Missouri won't be fooled," Legal fund president Brad Woodhouse said.

During its investigation, the secretary of state's office contacted 11 people, and one of them, who is unnamed in the report, "declined to participate in the investigation," the report said.

Ashcroft requested assistance from Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat, because her office has subpoena power. But Ashcroft said "subpoena powers were not needed" because of current Attorney General Eric Schmitt's cooperation in turning over records.

Galloway's routine audit of Hawley's administration is ongoing.

Ashcroft said the attorney general's office employees his office interviewed said Teepell and Gitcho became involved in the office in January of 2017 and that "the majority of the executive staff Attorney General Hawley brought on at the AGO had no government experience."

They said Teepell's job was to "provide guidance to senior staff not only on how to roll out those (office) priorities, but also on how to run a governmental entity." Employees said Gitcho's role "was to provide guidance on how to communicate with the media."

The report also says "AGO employees did not feel that they had to follow the advice Mr. Teepell or Ms. Gitcho offered" and that "Attorney General Hawley running for United States Senate was never brought up during any of the meetings or conference calls."

The employees interviewed said the consultants never spoke of "campaigning," only the roll-out of office priorities.

Ashcroft's office also interviewed Gitcho and Teepell, who said Hawley asked them to consult with his staff. They said they stopped consulting with staff over the summer of 2017.

Teepell said he "did not recall" Hawley participating in any conference calls the strategists held with staff, and the two strategists said they communicated with the employees' Gmail accounts, and not state accounts, because "those were the email addresses they had for them."

They were never paid by the attorney general's office, the report said, but were paid from Hawley's state campaign account.

Hawley told Ashcroft's office it was his decision to bring Teepell and Gitcho in to his office. He said he leveraged Teepell's previous experience running a government staff, and that Gitcho's expertise was in media communications.

Hawley said he told Teepell he did not plan on running for Senate until August 2017, after the two consultants stopped communicating with office staff.

Chuck Raasch of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.