(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-03 10:38

The committee, which had threatened to subpoena the records if they do not get access, also wants to know exactly what was shown on the tapes.

Since leaving the White House shortly before Christmas, President Bush has not addressed the tapes' destruction. Before going to Camp David, then his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush said he was confident that investigations by Congress and the Justice Department "will end up enabling us all to find out what exactly happened."

He repeated his assertion that his "first recollection" of being told about the tapes and their destruction was when CIA Director Michael Hayden briefed him on it in early December.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Mukasey's announcement proved that lawmakers "were right to be concerned with possible obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also lauded Mukasey's decision to launch a criminal inquiry. "The rule of law requires no less," Kennedy said. "Those tapes may have been evidence of a crime, and their destruction may have been a crime in itself."

Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat seeking his party's nomination for president, said a criminal investigation is no surprise, but suggested that Mukasey should remove himself from oversight of the investigation and appoint a special counsel "completely independent and free from political influence."

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