Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Forces A Vote On Arresting Attorney General Merrick Garland For Contempt

Right-wing Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) is set to force a vote in the House of Representatives to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in “inherent contempt,” which could result in the House Sargent at Arms arresting him. 

Luna is upset that the Department of Justice has not acted on the House holding Garland in criminal contempt earlier this month for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur about his handling of classified documents, which Republicans subpoenaed.

The DOJ immediately announced that it would not act on the prosecution recommendation. 

Luna wants to use an obscure House procedure that could see Garland arrested.

On the morning of June 24, she sent a letter to her colleagues, stating she would call up her inherent contempt resolution “in the next few days.” 

When she raises the question of privilege, leaders will have to schedule action on the resolution within two legislative days.

“Under inherent contempt, the individual is brought before the bar of the House by the Sergeant at Arms, tried by the body, and can then be detained either in the Capitol or in D.C.,” the Florida representative wrote in her letter. “This process demonstrates the seriousness with which Congress views non-compliance and the potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate.”

The Justice Department did not reply to Luna’s plans.

Inherent contempt was last used in 1934 on Washington lawyer William MacCracken, who spent ten days in prison for refusing to comply with a Senate subpoena. 

There are no instructions or House rules for the next steps for the sergeant-at-arms or the House, and there is no protocol for an arrest of a Cabinet official protected by an FBI detail. 

House rules declared that “the recalcitrant witness may be arrested and brought to trial before the bar of the House, with the offender facing possible incarceration,” but do not go into more detail. 

In early May, she filed her inherent contempt resolution. She promised to force a vote on it within ten days of the other contempt resolution passing out of committee if the Justice Department had not acted to produce the Biden-Hur audio.

“The only option to ensure compliance with our subpoena is to use our constitutional authority of inherent contempt,” Luna also mentioned in the letter. “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.” 

Luna mentioned that she met with House Speaker Mike Johnson about the inherent contempt, and he would instead work through the court system to force the DOJ to hand over the transcripts. 

Since she will make the resolution “privileged,” it won’t have to follow standard procedures, passing through the committee and waiting for leadership to place it on the House floor.

With the narrowest of majorities in the House, Republicans will need almost all of their side’s votes for the resolution to pass. 

“The Department of Justice and the attorney general cannot be the ultimate deciders of whether or not a congressional subpoena is enforced,” Luna claimed. “If Congress allows this to happen, we risk being subordinated to the attorney general and being completely neutered in our ability to legislate.”

On June 12, House GOP members voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for withholding Biden and Hur’s interview audio.

In a 216-207 vote, almost all Republicans backed the measure to refer the attorney general to the DOJ for prosecution, while all Democrats opposed it.