Democratic efforts to delay vote on Garland inherent contempt resolution foiled

Democratic efforts to quash a resolution holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress failed on Wednesday, teeing the motion up for a final vote later this week.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) filed her resolution as privileged on Wednesday, prompting House Democrats to attempt to table the measure and effectively kill it before it reached the floor for a full vote. However, that motion was killed in a 207-209 vote.

Democrats then moved to refer the motion to the Rules Committee, a procedural move meant to temporarily delay a vote on the motion. That effort also failed in a 207-211 vote.

The House will now take up the resolution on the floor Thursday morning before leaving Washington D.C. for a weeklong recess.

Luna has been pushing to hold Garland in inherent contempt after he skirted requests from House Republicans to hand over audio tapes of interviews between Hur and President Joe Biden regarding the special counsel’s investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents. The Justice Department provided access to transcripts of those interviews, which GOP investigators have argued are insufficient due to possible alterations or edits.

However, that push became more prevalent after the first presidential debate last month, during which Biden stumbled over his talking points and repeatedly lost his train of thought — raising concerns about his cognitive abilities on both sides of the aisle.

“What America saw at the first presidential debate leaves no question that Congress needs to hear Special Counsel Robert Hur’s tapes from his interview with President Joe Biden. President Biden’s performance was so concerning to all of us who watched that even before the debate had ended, people were questioning his ability to continue as president,” Luna wrote in a letter to House Democrats this week. “Even many of you had to make the difficult decision to call for President Biden to drop out of the race. The urgency of this situation cannot be overstated, and we must act swiftly.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had expressed concerns about Luna’s resolution, noting he would rather pursue alternative paths to access the tapes. The House Judiciary Committee has already filed suit with the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to force Garland to comply with its subpoena, which Johnson has supported.

“As a constitutional law litigator, former country litigator, my preference is to follow the legal process and legal proceedings that protect the institution,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “I’d rather do it in the way that we’ve done in our present litigation, but we will let the chips fall where they may.”

Johnson said earlier this week he would back the motion if it was brought to the floor, making it more likely to pass on Thursday.

Democrats have repeatedly moved to dismiss any contempt charges, arguing the resolution is an attempt to dredge up the most politically explosive finding of the special counsel’s report: that Hur, investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, did not charge him in part because a jury would judge him to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

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Garland was held in contempt after he rejected a subpoena from House Republicans in February to provide access to the audio recordings. The DOJ has already published the full transcripts of those interviews, arguing they are sufficient for Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. The White House has also cited executive privilege.

But top Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees have rejected the explanation, arguing the refusal “has hindered the House’s ability to adequately conduct oversight over Special Counsel Hur regarding his investigative findings and the President’s retention and disclosure of classified materials and impeded the Committees’ impeachment inquiry.”