Martha's Mouthpiece: We'll Deliver

Lawyers for Martha Stewart are expected to turn over documents demanded by a congressional committee probing her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. shares just before the company publicly disclosed bad news.

"We've asked for e-mail documents that are related to her relationship with ImClone and her sale of ImClone stock, and we've also asked for any phone records that would relate to those issues as well," House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee chairman James Greenwood, R-Pa., said on the CBS News Early Show Tuesday.

Later in the day, a spokeswoman said Stewart would comply by 5 p.m. EDT.

Reading a statement from Stewart's lawyers, Allyn Magrino said: "We'll be turning documents over to the committee today consistent with their deadline."

The full committee had threatened to subpoena the documents if not produced, to try to clear up questions about what she knew, if anything, about ImClone's problems.

"Martha Stewart's attorneys have assured us that they will turn over all the documents the committee has requested by the close of business," said panel spokesman Ken Johnson. "We will review those documents thoroughly before deciding how to proceed."

Executives of the troubled biotech firm may have destroyed records sought by congressional investigators, a House committee chairman said Monday.

In addition, a spokesman for the Energy and Commerce Committee said there is evidence that the former president of ImClone, Samuel Waksal, lied to panel investigators.

The panel will likely take a couple weeks to go through the various documents turned over by Stewart. "I suspect it will be early September before Chairman (Rep. Billy) Tauzin decides if a subpoena of Ms. Stewart is necessary," he said.

"The most pointed question, of course, is what did she know and when did she know it," Greenwood told Early Show anchor Jane Clayson.

Stewart, the domestic doyenne who is head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is being investigated for possible insider trading for selling almost 4,000 shares of ImClone before the company announced regulators had refused to review its cancer drug, Erbitux.

Questions have arisen about whether she was tipped about those problems. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that her stock broker's assistant called Stewart to warn her that Waksal was selling his shares.

Stewart, whose empire includes marketing tips on cooking, crafts and home decorating, has denied wrongdoing. Until June, she had been a regular contributor to The Early Show.

Her lawyers told the committee in June that the shares were sold under the pre-existing arrangement to sell the stock if it fell below $60 a share and she ordered the sale after a call from her broker at Merrill Lynch & Co.

"It's hard to understand a scenario in which she would allow herself and company to fall so far in disgrace, if you will, and lose so much financial value," said Greenwood, "if in fact she had the ability to simply come forward and set forth the facts and exonerate herself."

Waksal was arrested in June on charges that he advised family members and friends to sell their stock before the public announcement that the Food and Drug Administration would not review the company's anticancer drug, Erbitux.

He also has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly ordering documents to be destroyed. ImClone sued him last week, charging its former president with lying to the board of directors by assuring them that he would cooperate with the federal investigation.

The House committee also may ask the Justice Department to file criminal charges for making false statements to Congress and obstruction of justice, panel spokesman Johnson said.

"There's growing evidence to suggest that Sam Waksal repeatedly lied to our investigators," he said.