A House GOP effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress is reportedly stalled amid uncertainties about whether there's enough votes to pass the measure.
Two committees last week approved resolutions to censure Garland, The Hill noted, but citing an unnamed source, the outlet reported at least two Republican members have privately said they won't vote for the measure — enough to sink it if House Democrats are unified.
"We're not gonna do it unless we know we can pass it," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told The Hill. "There's more than one" GOP colleague who has reservations. But, he told the outlet, things could change over the Memorial Day holiday as "people figure out how to get comfortable with it."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has called the vote timing a "calendar issue," but the The Hill reported leadership typically schedules votes on such matters coming out of committee, while they still have momentum.
The issue has been complicated by a rowdy May 15 meeting in which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., insulted Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett's fake eyelashes.
"I mean, the whole country was looking at Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about fake eyelashes, but nobody was focused at all on their outlandish claim that the Attorney General of the United States is in contempt of Congress," Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin complained, The Hill reported.
The move to hold Garland in contempt was triggered by his refusal to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
Lawmakers have a transcript of the interview, but Biden claimed executive privilege over the tapes.
"We're entitled to have that tape, bottom line," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told The Hill.
"The prosecutor made a decision not to prosecute because he said [Biden] wasn't mentally up to the trial — I'm using my own words," Bacon said. "So we should know what's on that tape because that's an important thing. We have an election going on."
If leadership brings the contempt resolution to the floor when it returns from the Memorial Day break, it will happen within days of Garland's June 4 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, The Hill noted.
"The case is as compelling as it gets," House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., told The Hill. "So I'm all for doing it. And I think it's gonna happen as soon as we come back," he added. "I'm for doing it as soon as possible."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.