GOP leaders may scrap vote to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt: report

House Republicans' planned vote to refer Attorney General Merrick Garland for criminal contempt of Congress may be on the brink of being pulled, Axios reported Tuesday evening.

"Canceling the vote would be a letdown for conservatives who have pounded the table for the vote — and showcases the weakness of Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) thin House majority," reported Juliegrace Brufke, Stephen Neukam, and Andrew Solender. "The vote is in danger of being pulled off the schedule because Republican sponsors don't have the votes, two House GOP lawmakers and multiple sources told Axios. A vote was expected this week."

Republican hardliners sought the contempt holding for Garland's refusal to hand over raw audio recordings of former special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden in the classified documents investigation.

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Garland declined to turn them over to the House Oversight Committee because Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings, as it was widely understood there was no actual investigative purpose and the GOP was simply fishing for raw footage to try to use in campaign attack ads — something Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) admitted outright in a fundraising appeal.

The Hur report ultimately concluded without issuing any criminal charges for Biden, determining that the classified documents found in his personal papers at his office and home were in error, unlike the alleged deliberate theft and retention of documents by former Trump at Mar-a-Lago, for which he is now charged.

"Republicans are worried that the contempt vote failing could hurt their legal chances of obtaining the tapes in court, one senior House Republican said," the report continued, noting that moderate Republicans "had raised concerns about holding Garland in contempt, which is a tough vote for many of them in politically divided districts to take ahead of the November elections."