An inherent contempt resolution was avoided by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland after four Republicans banded together with Democrats to oppose the initiative.
By a vote of 209 to 207, the House of Representatives declined to hold Garland in intrinsic contempt. In June, the House found Garland in contempt for his refusal to provide Special Counsel Robert Hur’s audio recordings of his interview with President Joe Biden, which were part of Hur’s probe into Biden’s deliberate mishandling of classified material.
Hur described Biden as “an elderly man with a poor memory” following that interview. Despite the fact that 10 Democrats were also absent, the resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), blamed the loss of the measure on the seven Republican absences.
“Today’s vote on my inherent contempt resolution and the legislative appropriations bill did not pass due to some Republican absences,” Luna said in a statement. “An overwhelming majority of the party supports this resolution, and it already survived multiple kill-shot attempts by Democrats. Our efforts have not been futile.”
The motion was voted down by Representatives John Duarte (R-CA), Dave Joyce (R-OH), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Mike Turner (R-OH). The only Republican to vote against the contempt resolution that was approved in June was Joyce.
“As a former prosecutor, I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points,” Joyce said in a statement at the time. “The American people expect Congress to work for them, solve policy problems, and prioritize good governance. Enough is enough.”
Garland’s unwillingness to provide Hur with the audio recordings of their discussion with Biden is especially noteworthy in light of Biden’s poor performance in the June 27 debate. Many Republicans believed that Biden’s incapacity to finish sentences, think coherently, or articulate understandable phrases, coupled with his frequent inability to distinguish between seemingly contradictory historical events and timelines and his embarrassing and politically damaging mistakes, demonstrated Garland’s involvement in concealing Biden’s alleged diminished abilities.
The Department of Justice contended in a memo on the June vote day that Biden had strategically claimed executive privilege over the recordings on May 16, 2024, prior to the Judiciary and Oversight Committees marking up their contempt resolutions, and therefore Garland would not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.
After Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), which Garland oversees, made it apparent that it would not ignore the House-passed contempt resolution, Luna declared her intention to compel a vote on her inherent contempt motion to place Garland in inherent contempt of Congress.
“For Congress to legislate effectively, we must have access to the information that will enable us to make informed decisions,” Luna wrote in a letter. “When Congress is denied this crucial information, we are left to navigate complex issues in the dark.”
In 1957, Congress passed a statute establishing inherent contempt, which allowed the House Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest anyone who disobeyed a congressional subpoena without going via the DOJ or the executive branch.
According to Luna’s resolution, “Garland to the House for questioning and compel him to produce the requested evidence” must be brought before the House Sergeant-at-Arms.
The representative from Florida claims that the Biden White House called Republicans and put pressure on them to reject the resolution. This lobbying campaign was successful in forcing an amendment that would have required intelligence agencies to seek a warrant before eavesdropping on Americans early in 2024.
“This is the very definition of corruption,” Luna stated. “[Garland] believes he is above the law and can tell elected members of Congress what to do. My message to Garland is straightforward: release the tapes to Congress and let us listen to them.”
