Republican on powerful House committee says GOP has the votes to hold Garland in inherent contempt

South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, who sits on the powerful House Rules Committee, said on Monday that he believes his party has enough votes to charge Attorney General Merrick Garland with inherent contempt of Congress.

Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna introduced inherent contempt articles against Garland last week, after the Justice Department announced it would not take action against the attorney general. 

The contempt charges stem from Garland's refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena to hand over audio recordings of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur. 

"I know our party will probably have to pass [the resolution] without the Democrats, but I think we've got the votes to do that," Norman said on the "Just The News, No Noise" TV show.  "I'm glad that it's gotten as far as it has, [Luna] has worked on this for, I think, over two years to get this right, to make sure she has it in a form that will ... pass the House and ... get the job done with Merrick Garland."

Norman noted that they intended to vote on the resolution last week, but changes were made that delayed the vote. He also commented that House Speaker Mike Johnson is in favor of the resolution.

Inherent contempt would normally force the House Sergeant at Arms to detain Garland and bring him before the lower chamber. However, Luna introduced a resolution last week that would fine Garland $10,000 a day until he complies with their subpoena instead of arresting him.

“This version of inherent contempt will become standard practice for those who seek to undermine Congress as an equal branch of government,” Luna said in a post on X on Friday.

The comment also comes after the House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit against Garland over the tapes, which Biden has exerted executive privilege over. But Republicans have rejected the executive privilege argument, because the lower chamber already has a transcript of the interview. 

“Any privilege that could conceivably apply to President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel was waived when the Executive Branch released a transcript of that interview to the press and produced that transcript to the Committee,” the lawsuit said, according to the Hill.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.