A House vote to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress could be pulled off the chamber's voting schedule because Republicans sponsoring the measure don't have enough votes, according to two GOP lawmakers and multiple sources.
A vote has been expected as early as Wednesday to hold Garland in contempt for refusing to turn over audiotapes of President Joe Biden's interview with former special counsel Robert Hur earlier this year, but GOP leadership could pull the vote if enough Republicans won't back it, given the party's two-vote majority, reports Axios, which did not report the identities of its sources.
One senior House Republican said that party members are concerned that if the contempt vote does not happen or is rejected, that could hurt their chances of obtaining the tapes through court proceedings.
The House Oversight and Accountability and the Judiciary committees approved resolutions in May that found Garland in contempt of Congress after he defied subpoenas from Hur's investigation into Biden's mishandling of classified documents when he was in the Senate and while he was vice president.
The committees are demanding the audio recordings of the Hur interviews with the president and his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, along with other documents.
In March, Hur issued a report concluding Biden should not face criminal charges for his handling of sensitive governmental information when he was vice president, citing issues with his diminished cognitive ability.
Meanwhile, moderate Republicans have said they are concerned about holding the attorney general in contempt, which could spark repercussions in their political divided home districts before the upcoming November elections.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.