"She expects Speaker Johnson to raise it in conference 'tomorrow morning,'"
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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has promised to bring a resolution to the House floor to hold Biden's attorney general Merrick Garland in "inherent contempt," and Politico says that could be as early as Tuesday. Politico's congressional reporter Olivia Beavers said that Luna told her that the resolution would be coming on Wednesday. Luna vowed to bring it ahead of the July 4th recess and she's been assured that House Speaker Mike Johnson backs her motion.
"New: Rep. Luna tells me she’s bringing her Garland inherent contempt resolution to the floor on Wednesday. She told me she expects Speaker Johnson to raise it in conference 'tomorrow morning,'" Beavers said.
The House had determined to hold Garland in contempt for his failure to comply with a congressional subpoena to deliver the audio tapes of an interview between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur over classified documents allegedly illegally in Biden's possession after his VP term. Garland and the DOJ had provided the House with a transcript of those recordings. The investigation into the classified documents stored at Biden's home and assorted offices resulted in a report from Hur saying that Biden should not be prosecuted because, essentially, he came off as a "sympathetic" old man.
That wasn't good enough for the House, and after learning that the transcript had been edited, they demanded to hear the recordings. Garland refused to deliver, the House held him in contempt and referred charges to the Department of Justice, which declined to prosecute Garland, who heads the agency.
In response, Luna and her colleagues determined to "press forward," and the option available to them is to hold Garland in inherent contempt. Speaking to press prior to the July 4th recess, Luna said "As you know, on February 27, the Oversight Committee as well as House Judiciary had sent a subpoena to Attorney General Garland, of which we received no response. And after referring him for criminal contempt, within 48 hours or less, the Department of Justice refused to prosecute."
"Inherent contempt is clearly within our Article One authorities and Congress does have the power to investigate all legislative powers. Investigations are part of our legislative process, and people that interfere with these processes should be held accountable," she said.
"Inherent contempt was first used in 1795 and this was further upheld in a Supreme Court decision in 1927 in McGrain v. Daugherty that stated that Congress does indeed have this authority."
"It's important to note that when an individual is called before courts across the country, they appear. Why should the attorney general, who's supposed to be head of all law enforcement authorities, be any different? Garland still has time to comply with this request. We are asking that he bring the tapes to the House and let us listen to them."
"But in the event that he does not, we will press forward with calling the privilege motion on inherent contempt to the floor on Friday morning."
"It is also important to note that if we as a Congress do not have the ability to enforce our investigative ability, that we are essentially going to be ignored and undercut and essentially handicapped by all other branches which would make us not a co-equal branch of government," she said. She also encouraged the press to "report on this accurately in that Congress, again, does have the authority to do this, that the attorney general is not above the law. And ultimately, we will be pressing forward with this. This is something that again, would enable the Speaker of the House to order the sergeant of arms to take into custody the Attorney General if he fails to comply with our requests," she concluded.
Garland said he didn't have to comply with the subpoena due to executive privilege invoked by the president and that if he were forced to hand over the audio recording of the special counsel interview, that would have a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses and persons to comply with DOJ investigations in the future. Luna makes a similar case about the need for Congress' subpoena power to not be defied.
"New: Rep. Luna tells me she’s bringing her Garland inherent contempt resolution to the floor on Wednesday. She told me she expects Speaker Johnson to raise it in conference 'tomorrow morning,'" Beavers said.
The House had determined to hold Garland in contempt for his failure to comply with a congressional subpoena to deliver the audio tapes of an interview between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur over classified documents allegedly illegally in Biden's possession after his VP term. Garland and the DOJ had provided the House with a transcript of those recordings. The investigation into the classified documents stored at Biden's home and assorted offices resulted in a report from Hur saying that Biden should not be prosecuted because, essentially, he came off as a "sympathetic" old man.
That wasn't good enough for the House, and after learning that the transcript had been edited, they demanded to hear the recordings. Garland refused to deliver, the House held him in contempt and referred charges to the Department of Justice, which declined to prosecute Garland, who heads the agency.
In response, Luna and her colleagues determined to "press forward," and the option available to them is to hold Garland in inherent contempt. Speaking to press prior to the July 4th recess, Luna said "As you know, on February 27, the Oversight Committee as well as House Judiciary had sent a subpoena to Attorney General Garland, of which we received no response. And after referring him for criminal contempt, within 48 hours or less, the Department of Justice refused to prosecute."
"Inherent contempt is clearly within our Article One authorities and Congress does have the power to investigate all legislative powers. Investigations are part of our legislative process, and people that interfere with these processes should be held accountable," she said.
"Inherent contempt was first used in 1795 and this was further upheld in a Supreme Court decision in 1927 in McGrain v. Daugherty that stated that Congress does indeed have this authority."
"It's important to note that when an individual is called before courts across the country, they appear. Why should the attorney general, who's supposed to be head of all law enforcement authorities, be any different? Garland still has time to comply with this request. We are asking that he bring the tapes to the House and let us listen to them."
"But in the event that he does not, we will press forward with calling the privilege motion on inherent contempt to the floor on Friday morning."
"It is also important to note that if we as a Congress do not have the ability to enforce our investigative ability, that we are essentially going to be ignored and undercut and essentially handicapped by all other branches which would make us not a co-equal branch of government," she said. She also encouraged the press to "report on this accurately in that Congress, again, does have the authority to do this, that the attorney general is not above the law. And ultimately, we will be pressing forward with this. This is something that again, would enable the Speaker of the House to order the sergeant of arms to take into custody the Attorney General if he fails to comply with our requests," she concluded.
Garland said he didn't have to comply with the subpoena due to executive privilege invoked by the president and that if he were forced to hand over the audio recording of the special counsel interview, that would have a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses and persons to comply with DOJ investigations in the future. Luna makes a similar case about the need for Congress' subpoena power to not be defied.
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