Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) plans to force a vote to essentially hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, a rare move she said would require a vote on the House floor on Friday.
Luna said Garland reached out to her after President Joe Biden’s loyal aides refused to hand over evidence that Republicans said would show Biden was unfit for duty, ignoring a previous contempt vote by the House..
“For Congress to legislate effectively, we must have access to information to make informed decisions,” Luna said. I have written “When Congress is denied this critical information, we are left to deal with complex issues in the dark,” he wrote to colleagues on Monday.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., takes her seat as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee holds an organizational meeting for the 118th Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
On June 12, the House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking records related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s willful mishandling of classified information.
Garland submitted a transcript of Biden’s interview, but Republicans argued the recording was insufficient because Heo revealed Biden was mentally unstable and had “impaired memory” during the interview.
The House easily passed the initial contempt vote by a 216-207 margin after Garland ignored a subpoena requesting, among other things, audio recordings of the interviews.
But on that election day, the Department of Justice Claimed The memo noted that Garland would be protected from prosecution for contempt of Congress because Biden strategically asserted executive privilege over the recordings on May 16, 2024, before the Judiciary and Oversight Committees adopted contempt resolutions.
After Garland’s Justice Department made clear its intention to ignore the House’s contempt vote, Luna vowed to consider alternatives, including a substantive contempt vote.
In 1957, Congress enacted an inherent contempt offense by statute, allowing the House of Representatives’ chief sergeant-at-arms to bypass the executive branch and the Department of Justice and detain anyone who fails to comply with a congressional subpoena.
Luna’s resolution would instruct House protocol officers to “bring Mr. Garland before the House of Representatives for questioning and to compel him to produce the evidence requested.”
Luna may struggle to garner the support needed for the resolution. Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio was the only Republican to vote with Democrats against holding Garland in contempt earlier this month, but that vote came under heavy pressure from GOP leaders who want to avoid a similar embarrassment to their attempt earlier this year to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Three Republicans rejected impeaching Mayorkas, but one of them, former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), has since resigned for a higher-paying job in the private sector.
The Biden administration won’t budge on this vote, Luna said. The administration is calling Republicans to pressure them to oppose the resolution, he said. This is similar to the successful pressure campaign earlier this year to block an amendment that would have required intelligence agencies to obtain warrants before spying on Americans.
“This is the very definition of corruption,” Luna said in a statement.[Garland] “He believes he is above the law and can tell elected officials what to do. My message to Mr. Garland is simple: release the tapes to Congress and let us hear them.”
I wrote a letter to a dear colleague. @House RepublicansI am calling for a vote to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in substantial contempt of Congress, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor. The Department of Justice is not above the law. pic.twitter.com/1Lr32BO6VW
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) June 24, 2024
House Republicans’ uproar over Garland comes just days after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was jailed for failing to comply with a Jan. 6 committee subpoena from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is also currently serving a federal prison sentence for failing to comply with a committee subpoena.
In those cases, the Biden Justice Department followed the recommendation of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to pursue prosecutions for ignoring subpoenas.
Pelosi’s Jan. 6 committee has been a highly partisan body since it was disbanded and remains the subject of Republican investigations.
Republicans are likely to continue attacking Garland regardless of the vote.
“Why is Merrick Garland fighting so hard to hide these tapes?” Luna asked. “What is it about these tapes that would cause him to commit criminal acts to protect Joe Biden? Any other American would go to prison for his actions. This blatant abuse of power must stop. The American people deserve institutional integrity, not political corruption.”
Bradley Jay is Capitol Hill correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter. translation:.
