Mo Brooks has been among the loudest proponents of what has become known as “The Big Lie” — the baseless notion that the 2020 election was somehow stolen away from incumbent Donald J. Trump. Thing is, he doesn’t want to take any responsibility for his actions. In fact, as per a recent court filing made public on Tuesday, he’s putting the blame for a fiery, incendiary speech he delivered on Jan. 6, right before the deadly but failed insurrection, partially on the former president, who he’s allegedly trying to help.
The Alabama lawmaker is currently being sued by fellow representative Eric Swalwell over that speech, which he delivered to the whipped-up crowd, urging them to “fight for America” and to “start taking down names and kicking ass.”
Now we know how Brooks wishes to fight this accusation. For one, he’s looking for a loophole, arguing that he can’t be sued for his statements because they were done while he was technically working, and that questioning the outcome of the election, as per the filing, “represented the interests of his constituency.”
His other defense? That he was only there because Trump asked him — or, as the filing states, “But for the White House request, Brooks would have not appeared at the Ellipse rally.”
A number of the Trump supporters who were arrested for storming the Capitol having taken the second tack, pleading that they were simply doing what the then-president of the United States of America was telling them to do. But most of them aren’t also trying to still kiss Trump’s at the same time. Indeed, the filing still floated The Big Lie, claiming the “November 3, 2020 elections were the subject of voter fraud and election theft of a scale never before seen in America.”
Brooks’ attempts to thread a needle in which he puts the blame on Trump while still pledging fealty is yet another big move from the Alabama lawmaker. In fact, Swalwell filed his lawsuit months ago, and it took until early June for him to be served. That’s because Brooks kept avoiding being served. It got so bad Swalwell even had to hire a private investigator, who had to hand it to his wife at their Alabama home.
In the meantime, good luck, Mo Brooks, trying not to piss off Trump while not going to jail.
(Via Rolling Stone)