Using a rarely used and rarely discussed House procedural option, a Republican member declared on Monday that she will force a vote within the next few days to order the House sergeant-at-arms to place the attorney general under arrest.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., posted a copy of a letter she wrote to her House colleagues on social media early on Monday afternoon, saying, “I will call up the vote to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress, and I am encouraging all my colleagues to vote for it.”
Luna, 35, stated in the letter that the person is brought before the House bar by the sergeant at arms under inherent contempt, tried by the body, and then may be held.
“The only option to ensure compliance with our subpoena is to use our constitutional authority of inherent contempt. In the next few days, I will call up my resolution holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress, and I look forward to each of you voting in favor of it,” she stated.
It comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson recently asked the attorney general for a court order to obtain the audiotapes that House Republicans are requesting, because the Justice Department declined to bring charges against Garland.
The House voted 216-207 this month, primarily along party lines, to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for his refusal to provide audio recordings of President Joe Biden‘s interview with special counsel Robert Hur despite a written transcript. This vote followed the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees’ May vote to advance the resolution.
The resolution was referred to be a “partisan weapon” by the attorney general at the time. The former president Donald Trump’s supporter Luna declared on Monday that “the DOJ is NOT above the law.”
The endeavor is unlikely to succeed, though, as Democrats and even some Republicans are sure to find fault with Luna’s proposal.
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Luna, who was initially elected to the House in 2022, submitted the inherent contempt resolution in May. However, inherent disdain has not been employed since 1935, and applying it now would pose a number of challenging and open-ended questions in what has been described as a “cumbersome, inefficient” technique.
However, she has previously taken similar actions.
She also witnessed a GOP-led vote last summer to reprimand Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate for California’s Senate seat in 2024, due to Schiff’s involvement in the initial impeachment of the then-President Donald Trump.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus Luna wrote, “The urgency of this situation cannot be overstated. Our ability to legislate effectively and fulfill our constitutional duties is at stake. We must act now to protect the integrity and independence of the legislative branch.”
