GOP congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, who was one of the speakers at the January 6 pro-Trump rally that led to the attack on Capitol Hill, has gone into hiding to avoid being served with a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell that seeks to hold him accountable for his role in the deadly insurrection, prompting Swalwell’s attorneys to hire private investigators to find Brooks, according to CNN.
Before the attack, Brooks told the crowd: “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” He then asked the rally attendees if they were willing to fight.
The news outlet reported the detail of a court filing Wednesday in which Swalwell’s attorneys describe difficulty in serving Brooks with the lawsuit:
“Federal Judge Amit Mehta, after learning of Swalwell’s inability to serve Brooks with the lawsuit, gave the Democrat’s legal team another 60 days to get to Brooks with their formal notification. The judge, however, won’t allow the US Marshals to deliver the lawsuit to the Republican congressman “due to separation of powers concerns,” Mehta wrote, after Swalwell asked for the US Marshals Service’s help.”
After Swalwell sued in March, his attorneys tried to reach the Alabama Republican through calls to the congressman’s office and by sending a letter to formally provide him notice he had been sued, a necessary step in this type of court proceeding.
When they couldn’t get the lawsuit to Brooks, the Swalwell legal team hired a private investigator to find him — only to be hampered in April and May partly by the visitor lockdowns around the US Capitol complex, which were put in place for Congress’ protection after the siege, according to their filing Wednesday.
“Counsel spoke to two different staff members on two separate occasions, and each time was promised a return call that never came,” Swalwell’s attorneys wrote on Wednesday.
Following the Swalwell team’s calls, they emailed, too. “Neither Brooks nor any member of his staff has responded to his request,” their filing said.
“Plaintiff had to engage the services of a private investigator to attempt to serve Brooks personally — a difficult feat under normal circumstances that has been complicated further in the wake of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol that Defendants incited,” Swalwell’s court filing continued. “Plaintiff’s investigator has spent many hours over many days in April and May at locations in multiple jurisdictions attempting to locate and serve Brooks, to no avail.”
On CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Wednesday, Swalwell’s attorney Philip Andonian said his team would continue to try to locate Brooks.
“The problem here is that Mo Brooks’ door is under lock and key … There was just no access to the primary place that he was for much of the day,” Andonian said. “It just takes persistence and luck sometimes. We’re not claiming Brooks is hiding in a bunker somewhere. But it takes a lot of effort.”
