Cue the Pink Panther music. This is yet another milestone in politics, when one duly elected lawmaker, doing his job, cannot effect service of process on another duly elected lawmaker, because that person is hiding out and avoiding being served. This could get comical, detectives on stake out, process servers chasing Mo Brooks down the street. Nothing is impossible in Trump world and Brooks is the loon that got the insurrection ball rolling, when he challenged the results of the 2020 election in the House in the first place. Then Ted Cruz jumped on board and away we went. Axios:
Attorneys for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) have hired a private investigator to search for Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) in order to serve a lawsuit that alleges he and other pro-Trump allies bear responsibility for the Capitol riot.
Driving the news: That’s according to a court filing by Swalwell’s attorneys Wednesday claiming that Brooks is avoiding being served the suit, with their calls and emails going unanswered.
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“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,” the attorneys wrote.
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The investigator “has spent many hours over many days” since April searching for Brooks, “to no avail,” they added.
Why it matters: The lawsuit, which Swalwell has also filed against former President Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani, alleges that Brooks incited the Jan. 6 insurrection with his speech at a Washington, D.C., rally held before the violence erupted.
Brooks has said that the lawsuit is “meritless” “frivolous” all of that, and if that’s the case, fine. Just accept service, file the proper response and if in fact the suit is frivolous, the court will dismiss it in short order. Happens every day.
Brooks is a coward who can’t face the piper, plain and simple. And this guy wants to run for the U.S. Senate. Alabama, please, you can do better than this. In fact, you’re not going to do too much worse than this, unless you ask Roy Moore to run again.
First, why doesn’t Swalwell just have the Capitol police or the House Sergeant-at-Arms hold the guy? Brooks is a US representative and, if he so much as sets foot on the House floor, Pelosi should order the Sergeant-at-Arms to detain Brooks (by force, if necessary) until he’s served OR if he refuses to accept being served, then the Sergeant-at-Arms should be required to prevent Brooks from entering the House floor. (Granted, I have no idea if any of that is permitted but Pelosi should do whatever she can. Also, Brooks’ salary should be withheld as long as he evades the summons.)
There are rules, and on the floor they’re immune from legal action.
BUT, if he’s BARRED from entering, he won’t be “on the floor.”
And I do think there are some exceptions to the “immune from legal action” point. Certainly there’s no allowance for one member to physically assault another member.