Staff Reports
A group of fearless House Republicans is taking the bull by the horns, setting their sights on Attorney General Merrick Garland. Their mission? To hold him accountable for a sneaky game of hide-and-seek with audiotapes of President Biden’s interviews with special counsel Robert Hur. Leading this charge is Florida firebrand Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who is not backing down despite pushback from some in her own party.
Rep. Luna is wielding an old yet potent weapon: inherent contempt. This would allow Congress to slap the handcuffs on Garland and drag him in to fess up about those elusive Biden tapes. Luna has put Garland on the clock, promising a vote on his arrest if he doesn’t cough them up by Friday. Luna minced no words, essentially saying that if regular folks can go to jail for less, so can Garland.
This bold move comes on the heels of an earlier attempt where nearly every House Republican voted to hold Garland in contempt for giving Congress the cold shoulder over the Biden tapes. Hur’s interviews raised eyebrows not just about Biden’s mishandling of classified documents but also about his cognitive fitness. Hur opted not to press charges, seemingly out of pity for Biden being an amiable but forgetful old man. The Justice Department, in classic partisan fashion, declined to charge Garland, hiding behind Biden’s executive order.
She vowed this week that if Mr. Garland did not adhere to the House’s subpoena for the tapes, she would force a vote on arresting him as soon as Friday. https://t.co/6f9ItE0aSc
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) June 28, 2024
Inherent contempt, if successful, would see Garland carted off by the House Sergeant-at-Arms ready to spill the beans. However, some Republicans are clutching their pearls at the idea. Rep. John Duarte seems more worried about logistics than justice, pondering whether Garland would be put up in a hotel room. Duarte and likeminded naysayers see inherent contempt as a theatrical stunt rather than a serious move to hold Garland accountable.
Even those in favor, like Rep. Max Miller, acknowledge the uphill battle. Miller supports the measure based on his own run-in with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. He argues that what’s good for the goose should be good for the gander – if he had to comply, so should Garland. Speaker Mike Johnson, while announcing a lawsuit against the Justice Department, remains coy about fully endorsing Luna’s hardball tactics. Johnson vows to use every tool in the GOP arsenal but stops short of a full-throated endorsement.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first rodeo for Congress and inherent contempt. Back in 2019, Democrats toyed with the idea against then-Attorney General William Barr over the Mueller report. Of course, typical to Democratic bluster, it went nowhere.
In true conservative fashion, the GOP is once again stepping up to demand accountability and transparency, even if certain members are more inclined toward Beltway theatrics. The saga of Garland vs. the Republicans continues, and it’s clear this showdown is far from over.
