Here's what Leahy and Specter wrote on June 5:

June 5, 2007 The Honorable Glenn A. Fine

Inspector General

The Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Dear Inspector General Fine: Thank you for your letter of May 30, notifying the Committee of the expansion of your investigation into issues related to the dismissals of several U.S. Attorneys. This letter followed up on your earlier letter of March 26 notifying the Committee of the joint investigation into the matter by your office and the Office of Professional Responsibility. In your most recent letter, you notified us that you have expanded your investigation to "include allegations regarding improper political or other considerations in hiring decisions within the Department of Justice." On May 23, Monica Goodling admitted during her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that she "crossed the line" with respect to such considerations. She also testified about a meeting she had with Attorney General Gonzales that made her "uncomfortable" in the days before she resigned from the Department of Justice. She testified that Mr. Gonzales recounted to her his recollection of the process leading up to and including the firing and replacement of several U.S. Attorneys. Mr. Gonzales had previously testified to this Committee that he was being careful not to speak to others involved in the replacement of US. Attorneys about those matters because he thought that inappropriate. Ms. Goodling's testimony prompted Congressman Davis to ask whether the Attorney General was engaged in inappropriately communicating with someone he knew was a participant in and witness to the matters under investigation in order to shape her testimony. Although you mentioned the expansion of your inquiry with respect to the consideration in hiring decisions of improper political considerations, you did not mention this incident in your recent letter. Does the expansion of your inquiry include this matter? We look forward to your response. PATRICK LEAHY

Chairman ARLEN SPECTER

Ranking Member

They got their response today. Read it here (pdf). It reads in part:

In your letter, you referred to Monica Goodling’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on May 23, 2007, in which she stated that she had a meeting with the Attorney General in which the process leading to the removal of certain U.S. Attorneys was discussed. You asked whether our investigation includes this matter. This is to confirm that the scope of our investigation does include this matter.

Now the investigation is under way...Leahy has responded:

"The last time an internal investigation at the Department of Justice got too close for comfort the White House shut it down. I hope this investigation will not suffer the same fate as the OPR inquiry into the warrantlesss wiretapping program. This internal investigation is an important step in getting to the truth behind this matter, and they should be allowed to do their jobs without interference from this Administration."

So what does this mean? I don't know. Remember that there are two separate issues at stake here. One is the act itself. There are penalties just for interfering.

The second issue at hand is that little issue of lying to congress. Remember that when he testified he claimed he:

never attempted to influence or shape the testimony or public statements of any witness

While there is certainly no reason to be giddy over the prospect of an internal investigation, there is this from the WaPo piece:

The disclosure could represent a serious legal threat to the embattled attorney general. Fine's office is empowered to refer matters for criminal prosecution if warranted.

Should that be the case we can be fairly certain there won't be another Bush pardon. You can be sure they will drag that thing out for eternity.