Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) has been evading efforts to serve him a complaint in Rep. Eric Swalwell’s lawsuit against the Alabama Republican over his role in inciting the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, according to Swalwell’s lawyer.
“We have been attempting to serve our complaint on Mo Brooks for more than a month,” Philip Andonian told Punchbowl on Friday.
“I talked to staffers in his D.C. office who promised a response from someone, which never came,” he continued. “I sent the complaint and a waiver of service form in a detailed email to his chief of staff and counsel, which to date remains unanswered.”
The lawyer said that “[i]t seems clear that Brooks is choosing to make a political stunt out of a part of the process that essentially is a formality, which is unfortunate.”
“Although not surprising,” he added.
In contrast, ex-President Donald Trump and the other defendants in the case, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have agreed to waive service, Andonian said.
Swalwell, who served as a House impeachment manager in Trump’s second impeachment earlier this year, is suing Brooks, the former President, and the other two men for egging on a mob of Trump supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally that led them to attack the Capitol.
The organizer of the rally claims that Brooks helped plan the event.