BREAKING: House GOP fails to hold Merrick Garland in inherent contempt after Rep. Luna brings motion

The House voted to reject a resolution that would have held Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland in "inherent contempt" and would have fined him $10,000 per day if he did not comply with a Congressional subpoena. Congress demanded that he release audio recordings of Joe Biden's interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which were part of the investigation into Biden's illegal retaining of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency.

The resolution, brought by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), was met with a 204 to 210 vote. While 204 Republicans voted for the motion, another four voted against and 12 did not vote at all. The motion had been brought forward originally by Luna as well as Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Rich McCormick, Mark Alford, and Tim Burchett.

House Resolution 1344 stated, that for each day Garland did not hand over the recordings, "The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall impose a fine, which may not be paid with appropriated funds, on Attorney General Garland of $10,000 per day, until such time as Attorney General Garland complies with the subpoena of the House of Representatives by turning over the audio tapes."

Luna posted online, "Today’s vote on my inherent contempt resolution and the legislative appropriations did not pass due to Republican absences. Mast and Massi[e] had deaths in their family. Another member went to hospital. An overwhelming majority of the party supports this resolution and it already survived multiple kill-shot attempts by Democrats." She added, "Attorney General Merrick Garland will pay and be held accountable for trying to undermine our institutions. No one is above the law."

12 in the GOP did not participate in the vote. 206 Democrats voted against the bill, leaving the vote count at 204 to 210. The Republicans that voted against the resolution were Reps. John Duarte, David Joyce, Mike Turner, and Tom McClintock.

Republicans that were absent from the vote included Reps. Kelly Armstrong, Dan Crenshaw, Kay Granger, Doug LaMalfa, Doug Lamborn, Jake LaTurner, Laurel Lee, Thomas Massie, Brian Mast, Patrick McHenry, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Mike Rogers. Some of the Republicans in the Texas delegation were absent, however, hurricane Beryl has made landfall in the state in recent days.