House fails to pass GOP resolution to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland

CNN —

The House on Thursday failed to pass a GOP-pushed resolution to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The vote was 210 to 204, with four Republicans voting against it. Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said that she plans to reintroduce the resolution against Garland shortly after it failed on the House floor.

“We are very confident it will pass,” Luna, of Florida, said. “Just because it went down the first time doesn’t mean it can’t actually pass the second time.”

The move is an extension of the fight over the audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur, who did not charge the president but called him “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The White House asserted executive privilege over the tapes, but Republicans still held Garland in contempt of Congress and have since filed a lawsuit in court. CNN has also sued for the tapes.

The resolution states that “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 originally suggested her legislation would use a rare process referred to as “inherent contempt” that hasn’t been utilized in modern times, though the legislation was later rewritten to only charge a fine.

Former President Donald Trump put pressure on Republicans to back the move, writing on Truth Social this week, “I AGREE with Anna Paulina Luna and the many House Members who think Merrick Garland should be held in INHERENT CONTEMPT for refusing to release the Biden Tapes even though