House Republicans are preparing to sue the Department of Justice for access to audio recordings of interviews between special counsel Robert Hur and President Joe Biden, the latest escalation in a fight with Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The House Judiciary Committee is set to file suit sometime next week with the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia as part of efforts to force Garland to comply with a subpoena over access to the tapes, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Wednesday. The move comes after the Justice Department declined to press charges against Garland despite the House voting to hold him in contempt for rejecting the subpoena.
“In the meantime, there are a lot of different ideas and discussions, and people are brainstorming how might we acquire access to those tapes. We’re looking at all avenues,” Johnson said. “We’re going to be as aggressive as we can and use every tool in our arsenal to make sure that happens.”
One avenue being floated by House Republicans is a measure to hold Garland in inherent contempt, which would allow Johnson to order the sergeant-at-arms to take Garland into custody if he continues to reject the subpoena. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said if Garland doesn’t provide access to the tapes by Friday, she will file that resolution as privileged, which would force a vote on the House floor within two legislative days.
Luna’s timeline is not yet clear as several House lawmakers have been absent from the chamber this week due to primary elections in their home states.
“There’ll be members back on Friday, but I’m not going to bring the vote to the floor if there’s more Democrats than Republicans because then it’ll get tabled,” Luna said. “And so we are likely — we’re going to wait for those members [and] continue to have those conversations. But I do think, based on my discussions with the speaker, it would be very, very problematic for the attorney general to not let us hear those tapes. And whether it’s this way or another, we will get those tapes.”
It’s possible GOP leaders could move to table Luna’s resolution in favor of another strategy to gain access to the tapes. Johnson said he has been in conversations with Luna and other lawmakers to discuss a path forward.
Still, some members say they would vote against another resolution while the original contempt measure, passed by the House earlier this month, continues through a legal process.
Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) told reporters he is “not going to support it” because he believes the resolutions need to go through the proper legislative process.
“We need to take these contempt resolutions as impeachment resolutions, put them through committee,” Duarte said. “And when the committee comes back with a report, when the committee comes back with articles of impeachment, when the committee comes back with a conclusion after good process, then I’ll consider these motions.”
“I’m not responding and voting for every impeachment contempt resolution that comes along that hasn’t been through the appropriate committees,” the California Republican added.
Some members, such as Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), believe the inherent contempt resolution will pass.
“Look what he did. Merrick Garland is the No. 1 law enforcement in the country [and he’s] not even abiding by subpoenas. Not once, but twice,” Norman said. “Look at what they’re doing to Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, putting them in jail. It’s not gonna happen — Democrats aren’t gonna get away with that. I think you’ll see that in our vote.”
However, House lawmakers may not even get a chance to vote on the measure if it’s tabled by Democrats, all of whom voted against the Judiciary Committee’s original contempt resolution and would likely vote against Luna’s as well.
With the swearing-in of Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH), the House now stands at 432 with a Republican majority of 219 members. However, Johnson can still only afford to lose three votes to pass a measure along party lines.
Democrats have repeatedly moved to dismiss any contempt charges, arguing the resolution is an attempt to dredge up the most politically explosive finding of the special counsel’s report: that Hur, investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, did not charge him in part because a jury would judge him to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
But Republicans insist the audio is needed to assess the integrity of Hur’s investigation, plus carry out its impeachment inquiry into the president.
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Garland was held in contempt after he rejected a subpoena from House Republicans in February to provide access to the audio recordings. The DOJ has already published the full transcripts of those interviews, arguing they are sufficient for Republicans’ impeachment inquiry. The White House has also cited executive privilege.
But top Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees have rejected the explanation, arguing the refusal “has hindered the House’s ability to adequately conduct oversight over Special Counsel Hur regarding his investigative findings and the President’s retention and disclosure of classified materials and impeded the Committees’ impeachment inquiry.”
