Rep. Anna Paulina Luna to Newsmax: AG Garland Should Pay $10K Daily Fines

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has introduced a revised "inherent contempt" resolution targeting Attorney General Merrick Garland, proposing daily fines of $10,000 for noncompliance with a House subpoena.

The measure is expected to be brought to a vote later this week.

In an interview with Newsmax on Monday, Luna detailed her updated resolution against Garland. The resolution stems from Garland's refusal to release audio tapes of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

Luna explained the concept of "inherent contempt," a rarely used power of Congress to enforce compliance. "So basically, there's multiple types of contempt of Congress,” she said on "Greg Kelly Reports."

"What I found out is actually that I could bring forward a privileged resolution, meaning I can bring it directly to the floor," she added. "A vote that would give the House of Representatives, if you will, punitive action that we could take against the AG, because we know that the Department of Justice is not going to do their job."

Initially, Luna planned to propose the vote last week. However, after discussions with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the resolution was modified to include financial penalties instead of incarceration.

"The speaker 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.' That's a really incredible accountability mechanism," Luna said.

She said ignoring subpoenas should have consequences, pointing out that "there are people that have gone to jail" for doing the same thing.

Luna acknowledged the political calculations involved, noting that some Republicans in vulnerable seats were concerned about the potential impact on their reelection campaigns.

"For those Republicans that were in those front-line seats, they were voicing concern that it might potentially hurt them in their reelection," Luna said. However, she remains optimistic about the resolution's support, especially given that prominent Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi oppose it.

"We've heard that people like Nancy Pelosi are not supporting this, but that means that that's a good thing," she said.

When asked if Garland would be personally responsible for the fines, Luna confirmed, "He would be required, yes, to be personally paying that. And frankly, likely this will end up in litigation, but that's [imposing fines is] something that the House of Representatives has the authority to do."

Luna argued that the DOJ has failed to act impartially under Garland's leadership, justifying the use of inherent contempt.

"Right now, it's very evident that there is a double standard that exists within the justice system," she added.

"Inherent contempt was commonly used up until the early 1900s. And really, it went away once Congress decided to farm things over to the DOJ. But as you're seeing, the DOJ can't be trusted. Obviously, Garland is the head of that. And so that's exactly why we're bringing this inherent contempt vote," she said.

Luna highlighted the support of key House figures, including Republicans Jim Jordan and James Comer, the chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

"When you have the speaker, those people supporting it, there's really no downside to this vote," Luna said.

She also criticized Garland's and Biden's leadership, saying, "I think that Garland's very pretentious. And I think that Biden really [is] also, the fact that he's even putting his own people in this position, knowing that his own support party really doesn't even support him right now, is pretty telling about how he is as a leader."

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