The lawsuit against Congressman Mo Brooks, alleging involvement in the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, has been dismissed.
In the wake of the riots that took place that day, multiple lawsuits were filed against former President Donald Trump and several of his allies.
One suit was filed in March of 2021 by Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-California), on behalf of several plaintiffs.
In February, U.S District Judge Amit P. Mehta invited Brooks to file for a dismissal of all charges, which the court said it would honor.
“A liberal Obama-appointed federal judge agrees with me that communist-sympathizer Swalwell’s lawsuit is meritless and frivolous,” Brooks said. “In his order dismissing me from the lawsuit, Judge Mehta cleared me on wrong-doing saying, ‘The allegations against Brooks do not support a plausible inference that “he was advocating...any action' or that 'his words were intended to produce, and likely to produce, imminent disorder.' I make no apologies whatsoever for fighting for accurate and honest elections. The fact that Socialist Democrats tried to ruin me demonstrates my effectiveness in the fight for honest elections and their fear of having to win/lose elections fair and square.”
Brooks maintains that his words and actions on Jan. 6 have been consistently misrepresented by the media and those on the left.
“The only thing I asked the Save America rally crowd to do was chant 'USA,'” Brooks said.
Brooks was named a defendant in the lawsuit, along with former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani.
The court dismissed the case against Trump Jr. and Giuliani after they filed for dismissal, stating that the evidence against the pair was insufficient.
The suit against Brooks was not initially dismissed as it was for the other two defendants because he had not filed for dismissal.
The suit alleged that all the defendants share culpability in the violent riot on Jan. 6, which led to the Capitol building being filled with rioters and leaving five people dead.
“They allege that, before Jan. 6, President Trump and his allies purposely sowed seeds of doubt about the validity of the presidential election and promoted or condoned acts of violence by the President’s followers, all as part of a scheme to overturn the November 2020 presidential election,” the ruling read.
Brooks’ involvement in the lawsuit began with much controversy.
In June of 2021, Christian Seklecki, who was charged with serving the suit to Brooks, allegedly entered Brooks’ garage without invitation and gave the suit to Brooks’ wife, Martha. After the incident, Martha Brooks swore out a trespassing warrant against Seklecki.
Brooks initially filed a request for certification under the Westfall Act. Under that Act, if the Attorney General (AG) certifies that a federal employee “was acting within the scope of his office or employment at the time of the incident out of which claim arose,” the employee shall be dismissed from the action and the United States substituted as the defendant. The certification would not extend to an action brought against an employee for a “violation of a statute of the United States under which such action against an individual is otherwise authorized.”
The suit further claimed that Pres. Trump, Trump Jr, and Giuliani shared blame in that they shared the stage with Pres. Trump at the “Save America Rally” on the morning of Jan. 6.
The suit directly pointed to Brooks and the other defendants as being directly responsible for the fraction of individuals in attendance of the rally that actually entered the Capitol building. However, the lawsuit acknowledges that the Proud Boys, operating in small groups, had begun to breach the outer perimeter of the Capitol before the President’s speech had concluded.
"Swalwell’s pleading falls short in two respects,” Mehta said. “First, it fails to plead sufficient facts establishing that Giuliani or Trump Jr. knew of a tacit plan to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties. The Complaint does not, for example, allege either was involved in the planning of the Jan. 6 Rally or knew in advance that the President would call on rally-goers, including organized groups, to march on the Capitol while Congress was in session. Second, it does not allege that Giuliani or Trump Jr. had the 'power' to prevent such conspiracy.”
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