The lawsuit against Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks accusing him of helping to incite the January 6 Insurrection will proceed, but Brooks now claims he can’t be sued over the deadly siege. The reason? He was only acting in the interests of his constituents by pushing the Big Election Lie.
The judge in the lawsuit denied a request by the plaintiff, Democratic California legislator Eric Swalwell, to issue a default ruling against Brooks for failing to respond to the suit in timely fashion. Attorneys for the Alabama representative then entered a filing that says Brooks can’t be held responsible for the Capitol riot because he was simply doing his job by contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
From Bloomberg:
In his filing, Brooks cites the Westfall Act, which protects employees of the federal government from being sued over actions related to their jobs. Trump has also moved to the dismiss the suit on similar grounds, arguing presidents are immune from civil litigation. “Brooks represented the interests of his constituency when Brooks challenged the Electoral College vote submittals of states whose election processes were less than reliable in the judgment of Brooks,” he said in the filing. “It makes no difference whether Brooks was right or wrong.”
Brooks, former president Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. are named in Swalwell’s lawsuit. All three spoke at the rally that immediately preceded the January 6 riot. Brooks exhorted the crowd with his now-infamous phrase, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names, and kicking ass!”
Despite his claim that he can’t legally be held responsible for any of the violence on January 6, Brooks worked overtime to avoid his legal papers. He dodged Swalwell’s representatives for so long, the Democrat wound up hiring a private investigator who finally served Brooks in the garage of his home.
