Washington ? The main investigative committee in the Republican-led House will look into allegations Clinton administration national security adviser Sandy Berger mishandled highly classified terrorism documents, lawmakers said Wednesday.

Even though the matter already is the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said the panel has “a constitutional responsibility to find out what happened and why.”

The decision by House leaders to launch a congressional investigation came the same day the White House acknowledged that its lawyers were notified months ago about the Berger investigation. In yet another development, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed a Freedom of Information request for any correspondence about the probe between the Justice Department and the White House.

DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe said he was making the request “in response to the questionable timing of the public release of information,” which was the subject of a story by The Associated Press three days before today’s scheduled release of the final report by the Sept. 11 commission.