WASHINGTON – A House member is suing former President Donald Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a fellow House member for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but the toughest hurdle has proved to be just serving Rep. Mo Brooks with the lawsuit.
The lawyer for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tried contacting Brooks’ office and received no reply. The lawyer couldn’t visit the office in person because of security restrictions since the riot. Swalwell even hired a private detective to track down Brooks, with no luck.
“Plaintiff’s investigator has spent many hours over may days in April and May at locations in multiple jurisdictions attempting to locate and serve Brooks, to no avail,” according to a court filing.
Adding insult to alleged injury, Brooks, R-Ala., appears quite aware of the lawsuit. Brooks tweeted hours after the lawsuit was filed that the lawsuit “is a meritless ploy.”
Plaintiffs usually get 90 days to serve defendants with a lawsuit, so the case can formally begin. The deadline would have been Friday.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta granted Swalwell a 60-day extension Wednesday, after Swalwell, a former prosecutor, described several failed strategies to serve Brooks. But Mehta rejected Swalwell’s request to have U.S. Marshals serve Brooks because of concerns about separation of powers between the three branches of government.
Swalwell and Brooks are each lightning rods for criticism from their opposing parties. Swalwell investigated…
