Government

Alabama Rep Mo Brooks Gets Served, Tweets Password, Declares Flawless Victory

They're really not sending their best people.

By  
on

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

After his colleague Eric Swalwell sued him for inciting the Capitol Riot, Congressman Mo Brooks spent three months playing Catch Me If You Can with the process server. Because the guy who hopes to be Alabama’s next senator is simultaneously 67-years-old and also 12.

Rep. Brooks ginned up the crowd on January 6, urging them to “stop at the Capitol” because “Today is the day that American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” In March, Rep. Swalwell filed his complaint against Brooks, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump Jr. and Sr. for their roles in the attack. But while his co-defendants waived service of process like full-fledged adults, Brooks dodged service like a deadbeat dad, forcing Swalwell to ask the court last week for an extension of time to effect service.

Here’s Brooks taunting Swalwell just days ago.

Haw haw.

But this weekend Swalwell’s process server finally managed to catch up with Brooks’ wife, handing her notice of the case at the couple’s house in Alabama, and Brooks is hopping mad about it.

Sponsored

“Well, Swalwell FINALLY did his job, served complaint (on my WIFE),” he tweeted yesterday. “HORRIBLE Swalwell’s team committed a CRIME by unlawfully sneaking INTO MY HOUSE & accosting my wife! Alabama Code 13A-7-2: 1st degree criminal trespass. Year in jail. $6000 fine. More to come!”

Below his fulminations Brooks included a photograph of his computer screen (because Shift+Command+4 is hard), which appeared to include both a PIN number and a Gmail password.

What a blessing it is to have Representative OPSEC on both the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technology, and Information Systems!

He later retweeted a cropped image with just his tabs showing.

Sponsored

“Swalwell’s process server entered the Brooks’ home without Martha Brooks’ knowledge and without her consent,” Brooks’ spokesman Clay Mills told The Washington Post. “Then he refused to leave when Mrs. Brooks demanded it. There is video proof. The Brooks’ filed a police report.”

No video or police report was supplied to support the claim, and Swalwell’s lawyer Philip Andonian vigorously denied the allegation, telling CNN, “No one entered or even attempted to enter the Brooks’ house. That allegation is completely untrue. A process server lawfully served the papers on Mo Brooks’ wife, as the federal rules allow.

“This was after her initial efforts to avoid service. Mo Brooks has no one but himself to blame for the fact that it came to this. We asked him to waive service, we offered to meet him at a place of his choosing,” Andonian continued. “Instead of working things out like a civilized person, he engaged in a juvenile game of Twitter trolling over the past few days and continued to evade service. He demanded that we serve him. We did just that. The important thing is the complaint has been served and Mo Brooks can now be held accountable for his role in inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.”

It’s all so, so ridiculous, and looks to continue being that way for a good, long time.

“.@EricSwalwell team committed Criminal Trespass INSIDE Mo Brooks’ home,” Brooks tweeted last night. “#CNN Swalwell attorney Phillip Andonian denies agent’s crime. Agent’s video is PROOF! Release it! Experts to download home security video tomorrow. Arrest warrant to be sought.”

Which doesn’t actually sound like the police report has been filed yet? Perhaps they’re waiting for Mo Brooks to figure out how to access the security footage, in which case they may run into a statute of limitations problem. Although parsing case and tense here is rather like trying to read the future in a rancid pile of goat entrails. You’re no wiser than when you started, and the whole thing stinks.

Rep. Mo Brooks served with lawsuit related to his role in Capitol insurrection [CNN]
Mo Brooks accuses investigator of ‘unlawfully sneaking’ into his home to serve Democrat’s lawsuit over Jan. 6 [WaPo]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

,