WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Thursday rejected a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland accountable for “inherent contempt” for failing to turn over audiotapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The “privileged” resolution, written by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican and Donald Trump ally, called for the House to impose a daily fine of US$10,000 in Garland for every day he doesn’t deliver the audio tapes.
The inherent contempt process has in the past involved the House Sergeant at Arms taking a person into custody and bringing them to be tried on the House floor, but has not been used in this way in more than a century in the Chamber. Luna’s resolution merely instructed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to impose the daily fine, though it was unclear how exactly he would enforce it and the matter could have ended up in court.
It did not require that Garland be taken into custody.
After the failed vote, Luna took to social media and promised to bring it back to the plenary, saying that his resolution only failed “due to some Republican absences.”
“I have reintroduced the resolution and will address it again in a few weeks when Congress returns to session and members return,” Luna said in X. “Attorney General Merrick Garland will pay and be held accountable for trying to undermine our institutions. No one is above the law.”
The vote was 204-210. Four Republicans – Representatives John Duarte and Tom McClintock, both from California; and Dave Joyce and Mike Turner, both of Ohio – voted with all Democrats to reject the resolution. Another 12 Republicans were absent.
Joyce, a former prosecutor, noted that the executive privilege decision was up to Biden, not Garland, and that the DOJ had already turned over transcripts of Biden’s interview.
“The privilege is with the president. The attorney general provided the transcripts. When they requested the tapes, the president said he was exercising privilege over the tapes,” Joyce, a former prosecutor, said in an interview. “Garland is between a rock and a hard place. To get where you need to go is to go through the courts.”
Republicans sought audio of Biden’s interview with Hur, who was appointed by Garland to lead the investigation into Biden’s handling of confidential documents dating back to his days in the Senate and as vice president. Although he said Biden’s practices “pose serious risks to national security,” Hur did not press charges against the president, in part because Biden could portray himself as an “elderly man with a failing memory” who would be sympathetic to a jury. .
The Justice Department in March released redacted written transcripts of the president’s five-hour interview with Hur on Oct. 8 and 9, 2023. But Luna and other Republicans say they want to hear Biden’s audio themselves to ensure the transcripts were not manipulated.
The White House asserted executive privilege in refusing to turn over the audiotapes, and Biden’s Democratic allies on Capitol Hill have said the written transcripts are sufficient.
Asked to respond to the poll, a Justice Department spokesperson said Garland was “leading a forum on cross-border crimes and is not available for comment.”
Thursday’s inherent contempt vote comes a month after the House voted 216-207 to hold Garland liable for contempt of Congress over the audiotapes, but the DOJ said it would decline to prosecute the leader of the law enforcement agency. law.
On Wednesday night, Democrats first tried to “delay” or kill Luna’s resolution, but that effort failed. Democrats then introduced a motion to refer the resolution to the Rules Committee to delay the process, but that too failed, leading to a full House vote on Thursday.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
