House Republican Floats Arrest of Merrick Garland for Refusing To Turn Over Audio of Biden’s Interview With Special Counsel

A firebrand House Republican says she will soon force a vote on a resolution that could direct the Sergeant at Arms to arrest and detain Attorney General Garland for his failure to produce the audio of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. Mr. Garland has already been held in contempt by the full House.Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, an acolyte of President Trump who was elected to the House in 2022, says she will force a vote in the coming days on a resolution of inherent contempt. She says Mr. Garland has demonstrated “blatant disregard for Congress as an institution.”“The executive branch will continue to withhold information from Congress if there are no consequences for their actions,” Ms. Luna writes in a letter to her Republican colleagues. “It is imperative that Congress uses its inherent contempt powers and instructs the Sergeant at Arms to bring Attorney General Garland to the House for questioning and compel him to produce the requested evidence.”Republicans already have access to the transcript of Mr. Biden’s interview with Mr. Hur, though they want to hear the audio because they say certain sections of the transcript could have been edited. Inherent contempt has been used in the past to compel testimony and production of evidence from witnesses. The power “permits Congress to rely on its own constitutional authority to detain and imprison a contemnor until the individual complies with congressional demands,” according to the Congressional Research Service.The last time the inherent contempt power was invoked was during the 1930s when a lobbyist for the airline industry failed to comply with a Senate investigation. The lobbyist, William MacCracken, was charged by the Senate with defiance of congressional subpoenas, and after a trial in the upper chamber was held and presided over by Vice President Garner, the Senate voted to imprison MacCracken for ten days.The Supreme Court later said that the imprisonment of MacCracken was consistent with Congress’ oversight authority. “Here, we are concerned not with an extension of congressional privilege, but with vindication of the established and essential privilege of requiring the production of evidence,” Justice Louis Brandeis wrote for the court in 1935. “For this purpose, the power to punish for a past contempt is an appropriate means.”The inherent contempt power burst back on to the scene in 2021 and 2022, when Democrats and two Republicans were investigating the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Congressman Ted Lieu said in December 2021 that two top advisors to Trump — Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon — could be forced to testify before the committee by using the inherent contempt power. “I have legislation that will allow the House of Representatives to execute our inherent contempt power,” Mr. Lieu told MSNBC after both Mr. Meadows and Bannon were held in contempt of Congress. Mr. Meadows was never prosecuted for his defiance of the congressional subpoena and Bannon is currently demanding a swift appeal at the Supreme Court before he reports to prison on July 1. “It’s a power that the Supreme Court has upheld,” he continued. “We can use it to find witnesses or to put them into confinement. It’s time we use that because right now, the trial for Steve Bannon for example, is not set until August. For Mark Meadows, it will probably be even further, and when you can delay subpoenas that long, it effectively renders subpoenas meaningless. … congressional subpoenas have been rendered largely meaningless by the people who want to evade them.”

House Republican Floats Arrest of Merrick Garland for Refusing To Turn Over Audio of Biden’s Interview With Special Counsel

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