A committee is a group of people who are part of an organization, often a board of directors. Committees are a way for an organization to get more accomplished by dividing the work among a larger group of people. A committee can include current board members and employees, but some also involve outside experts. This helps ensure the committee has access to all the relevant information and can make decisions that are based on factual data. A board may not follow all the recommendations a committee makes, but if they are well informed and make sound decisions, the board will likely follow suit.
A subcommittee of the House Administration Committee has launched a portal to collect tips from the public about potential corruption or illegal activity in Congress. The staffer said the subcommittee will be combing through the roughly two million documents and records that the Jan. 6 committee collected in its high-profile investigation of the riot. The goal is to see if pertinent information was omitted during the process of investigating the riot.
The panel has been stung by criticism that it is partisan and an abuse of Congress’ investigatory powers. But Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who chaired the committee, has vowed to continue the work regardless of how much political pressure comes from Republicans who want him to step down from his post. The select committee is also expected to hold its first public hearing on Wednesday, when it will examine the Trump administration’s response to the panel’s sweeping report on the riot.
In the weeks before the inauguration, the committee wrote that Trump, his campaign and his advisers were involved in a “litany of false election-fraud claims” including an effort to put forward fake slates of electors in seven states he lost. The committee’s final report cites emails, texts and phone calls between Trump and his aides and state officials, as well as the president-elect’s own tweets about it.
The panel identified a little-known pro-Trump attorney, Kenneth Chesebro, as the original architect of the legally dubious fake slates plan. It says he sent a memo to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani about the strategy, which wrongly claimed Vice President Mike Pence could intervene on behalf of his party when the Electoral College votes are counted on January 6. The committee is investigating the strategy for obstruction of justice and other crimes. It has already referred Trump to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.