Walnut Creek, Calif. ? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has crowed about campaign promises kept in his first days in office, will leave one pledge unfulfilled: a probe into claims that he groped numerous women over a 20-year movie career.

On CNN’s “Inside Politics” Tuesday, Schwarzenegger confirmed that “there is no investigation” into the allegations that dogged him on the eve of his historic Oct. 7 recall victory.

Schwarzenegger admitted he had “behaved badly sometimes,” after a Los Angeles Times story five days before the election detailed allegations from six women that he groped or sexually harassed them on movie sets and elsewhere. The list of accusers quickly grew to 16.

Schwarzenegger promised he would “get into all of the specifics and find out what is really going on” once the campaign ended. A spokesman had said he would hire a private investigator.

Rob Stutzman, the governor’s spokesman, said Monday that an investigation would do little good, and only “provide more fodder for his political opponents.”

That statement came hours after one of the governor’s accusers filed a libel suit against Schwarzenegger and his campaign. Rhonda Miller claims the campaign falsely suggested she was a felon in an e-mail sent to reporters.

Schwarzenegger has denied the bulk of the groping claims and issued a blanket apology for the rest, but he has not specified which allegations are true.

He said he was focused on a mandate to “straighten out the mess” in Sacramento. His plan for an investigation was “meant much more for me, that I wanted to look into it myself. And so that doesn’t mean I won’t do that. But, I mean, the bottom line is right now, I’m focusing on this and there’s no investigation,” he said.

The governor’s office declined to elaborate Tuesday. But his comments veered from statements his campaign made just before the recall vote, as opponents hammered him for putting off specifics.

“What Arnold is indicating,” Stutzman told the Times on Oct. 6, “is that we will continue our effort, which has been nonstop, to find first-person witnesses to refute allegations.”