Stewart Turns Over Data to Panel

Martha Stewart on Tuesday turned over about 1,000 pages of e-mail notes, phone records and other documents to a congressional panel investigating whether she had inside information when she sold shares of ImClone Systems Inc. or had obstructed the government’s examination of the sale.

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been investigating allegations of insider trading of ImClone stock last year, had said they would subpoena the records--and possibly Stewart herself--if they did not receive the documents by Tuesday. The committee did not immediately make the documents available.

“Our investigators have thumbed through the documents, trying to make certain she has provided us with everything we have requested,” said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the House committee. “There’s a lot there. There are e-mails and a ton of records of phone calls. In many cases, we’re literally going to have to pick up the phone and see who is on the other end.”

The investigators already have questions about some of the documents, which had portions that were blocked out, Johnson said.

“Her attorneys have since explained to us that the documents in question contained financial information not related to ImClone--in other words proprietary information,” Johnson said. “We’ve asked her lawyers to bring in the originals this week so we can verify that.”

The documents were turned over in response to the committee’s second request for information from Stewart, who has not been charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Although Stewart had forwarded a series of records in June, House investigators later said they found inconsistencies between Stewart’s comments and those of other witnesses.

“We’re giving her the opportunity to put her best foot forward and provide us with as much information as possible and clear up the inconsistencies in her story,” Johnson said.

Stewart sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone on Dec. 27, a day before the Food and Drug Administration said it would deny approval of the company’s Erbitux cancer drug. ImClone shares plummeted on the FDA announcement.

Although Stewart was a close friend of former ImClone Chief Executive Samuel D. Waksal--who since has been charged with trying to sell ImClone stock before the FDA’s announcement and alerting family members to do likewise--Stewart has said she sold because of a preexisting arrangement with her Merrill Lynch broker to sell if ImClone shares dipped below $60, as they did that day.

After reviewing documents from Merrill Lynch, the panel so far has not found evidence of such a “stop-loss” agreement, Johnson said.

Even after complying with the document request, Stewart, who has declined to talk privately with congressional investigators, still faces the possibility of being ordered to testify on Capitol Hill, committee members said.

Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.), chairman of the panel’s oversight subcommittee, told CNN the committee “probably will need to subpoena her” to appear before the panel, a decision that probably will be made around Labor Day.

“I don’t have any great heart to drag her before the committee for a media circus,” Greenwood said. “On the other hand, just because you’re rich and famous doesn’t mean that you get treated specially.”

Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia got a boost Tuesday from the news of Stewart’s compliance and rose 91 cents to $9.05 on the New York Stock Exchange. The company has lost about half of its market value since news of Stewart’s alleged involvement in the scandal surfaced in June.