Politico Congress reporter Olivia Beavers reported on Tuesday that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is urging Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) to delay introducing her inherent contempt resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland, which is planned for today, Wednesday.
A source present at the GOP conference reported that Speaker Johnson is encountering tough resistance, as Rep. Luna remains determined to move forward with her resolution.
“This comes after she told the conference at the mics that she’d bring up contempt and it will be on the floor Wednesday. She told members that she amended it so it’s not arresting him but fining him,” Beavers wrote.
Last month, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) notified her colleagues of her plan to introduce a resolution directing the House Sergeant at Arms to detain Attorney General Merrick Garland and bring him before the lower chamber.
“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.,” Luna said. “This process demonstrates the seriousness with which Congress views non-compliance and the potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate.”
Last Wednesday, Rep. Luna issued a stern ultimatum to Attorney General Garland, demanding he hand over the requested audio tapes by Friday morning or face being taken into custody.
“Why should the attorney general, who is supposed to be head of all law enforcement authorities, be any different? Garland still has time to comply with this request. We are asking that he bring the tapes to the house and let us listen to them, but in the event that he does not, we will press forward with calling the privilege motion on Inherent Contempt to the floor on Friday morning,” Rep. Luna said in a press conference.
Instead of introducing a privilege motion on inherent contempt on Friday, Rep. Luna proposed a resolution to impose a daily fine of $10,000 on Attorney General Garland, to be paid out of his own pocket until he complies.
Rep. Luna has introduced a new resolution after encountering resistance from some Republicans to her proposal to arrest and detain Attorney General Garland.
However, Rep. Luna confirmed that her proposal does not have enough votes to pass.
“There were members who said they didn’t support the other version. Meaning it would fail… Either way, I am literally the only person that brainstormed any accountability. If you don’t like how the GOP VOTES as a whole get active, but trashing me without knowing details is exactly what the left does,” Luna stated.
In addition to this, Luna confirmed an attempt to block her resolution by bringing up a “bill of attainder,” which she argues does not apply in this case.
“I can confirm this. I can also confirm that there was an attempted to block this resolution by bringing up a ‘bill of attainder’ which does not apply to this & is a last ditch effort to block this. I have a graphic with legal argument coming,” Luna said.
In an interview with Greg Kelly, Rep. Luna revealed that Speaker Johnson blocked her resolution to arrest Attorney General Garland after she consulted with him.
“Last week, I was going to bring the vote forward. And then, after speaking to the Speaker, he said, ‘Look, I will support a resolution that brings a $10,000 a day fine to be personally paid by Garland for every day that he ignores a subpoena.’ And then ultimately, that’s a really incredible accountability mechanism, because what we’re finding right now is that people have not only ignored subpoenas but also, remember, Greg, there are people that have gone to jail. And so for people that say, ‘Well, why isn’t Garland going to jail?’ You guys have to understand that I’m only one member of Congress and that we need multiple Republicans to vote for this,” Luna said.
After blocking Luna’s initial resolution to arrest Attorney General Garland, Speaker Johnson has reportedly advised her to delay introducing her inherent contempt resolution. Johnson argued that the House had already filed a lawsuit to enforce the subpoena, which is a less confrontational approach.
This move raises questions about whether Johnson is protecting Garland.
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