Democrat Eric Swalwell has spent months now trying to hold Republican Rep. Mo Brooks accountable for his role in the deadly insurrection at the United States Capitol in January. But Brooks, perhaps taking a cue from Seinfeld’s George Constanza, seems to have come up with a way to temporarily avoid the inevitable: If Swalwell can’t find me, he can’t sue me.
Attorneys for the Democratic congressman from California in a filing on Wednesday told a federal judge that they have not been able to serve Brooks with a lawsuit because they can’t find him. Brooks has not responded to different forms of outreach, Swalwell’s legal team said, and the Alabama Republican has been so elusive that they hired a private investigator to track him down. The quest has been even more arduous due to the restrictions put in place at the U.S. Capitol after the January 6 riot, according to the attorneys.
“Many hours over many days” of gumshoe searching “at locations in multiple jurisdictions” for Brooks have been “to no avail,” the attorneys said, requesting a 60-day extension to deliver the complaint. Brooks definitely knows about the lawsuit, the attorneys pointed out. “Just hours after it was filed, Brooks tweeted a series of baseless accusations against Plaintiff in response,” the filing reads. “And yet, Brooks has refused to waive service or even speak to undersigned counsel about the case.”
Swalwell in March filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and several prominent allies over the riot, alleging that they “by force, intimidation, or threat, agreed and conspired with one another to undertake a course of action to prevent” the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. But unlike Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani, who are also defendants in the suit, Brooks has not legally acknowledged the complaint. “The problem here is that Mo Brooks’ door is under lock and key,” Swalwell lawyer Philip Andonian told CNN. “There was just no access to the primary place that he was for much of the day.”
Brooks, a top Trump ally in the House, helped lead the Republican opposition to Biden’s November win, claiming the day the race was called that the election had been “stolen” and promising a fight to overturn the results. In an unhinged speech at the rally preceding the Capitol riot, Brooks urged the armed mob to “start taking down names and kicking ass” and suggested they should be willing to shed blood for the cause. “Today, Republican senators and congressmen will either vote to turn America into a godless, amoral, dictatorial, oppressed and socialist nation on the decline,” Brooks told the crowd on January 6, “or they will join us [and] they will fight and vote against voter fraud and election theft and vote for keeping America great.”
Following the remarks from Brooks and Trump, who urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, the MAGA mob stormed Congress, stalking the halls in search of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and other lawmakers with gallows waiting outside. Brooks paid lip service to condemning the riot he helped instigate, but he nevertheless voted against certifying the election results when lawmakers were able to reconvene later that evening. Democrats introduced a censure resolution against him in January. Brooks, meanwhile, has continued to promote Trump’s Big Lie and to wield dangerous rhetoric against opponents. He described Swalwell’s lawsuit in a March tweet as a “meritless ploy.”
He hasn’t formally responded to the suit, though, and has so far been able to give Swalwell, his lawyers, and their private investigator the slip. Amit Mehta, the D.C. federal judge on the case, granted Swalwell the 60-day extension on Wednesday but declined to authorize U.S. Marshals to deliver the complaint, citing concerns about the separation of powers — which means the Democrat and his team will need to keep searching for Brooks themselves. “We’re not claiming Brooks is hiding in a bunker somewhere,” Andonian, the attorney, told CNN. “But it takes a lot of effort.”
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