Leahy had also asked Fine to look into whether Gonzales gave inaccurate testimony about the firings of several US attorneys last year.
"You identified five issues and asked that we investigate whether the statements made by the attorney general were intentionally false, misleading, or inappropriate," Fine wrote in his four-paragraph response to Leahy in the letter dated yesterday.
"The [Office of Inspector General] has ongoing investigations that relate to most of the subjects addressed by the attorney general's testimony that you identified," Fine told Leahy.
Spokesmen for Gonzales had no immediate comment.
Senate and House lawmakers have said they will continue congressional investigations of Gonzales's leadership and management at the Justice Department, despite the attorney general's announcement Monday that he has resigned, effective Sept. 17.
Gonzales's resignation came a month after his truthfulness was challenged during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. At the hearing, Gonzales denied that he tried in 2004, as White House counsel, to push the Justice Department into approving the administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program despite concerns that it was illegal.
Gonzales said the March 2004 dispute - which played out in part at the hospital bedside of a groggy John Ashcroft, then attorney general - focused on "other intelligence activities."
Gonzales's testimony to Congress was contradicted later by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, who said the dispute was about the program that then allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on domestic terror suspects without court review.
Gonzales's resignation left the White House scrambling to find a replacement. No single candidate has emerged from a list of more than two dozen lawyers, judges, GOP politicians, and current and former Justice Department officials being discussed.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday that it was unlikely that Gonzales's successor will be named until President Bush returns Sept. 9 from the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Australia.
"We would expect to do it shortly after returning from APEC," Perino said. "This is something we want to do in an expeditious manner."
