Brooks sends fundraising emails over lawsuit service
Published 6:43 am Friday, June 11, 2021
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks is attempting to raise cash for his Senate race with a fundraising email detailing how his wife was served with papers notifying the congressman of a lawsuit accusing him of inciting the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Brooks, a Republican candidate in the GOP primary for Sen. Richard Shelby’s seat, sent out the fundraising email with the subject reading “THEY CAME AFTER MY WIFE.”
The email was sent days after Brooks’ wife Martha was given the lawsuit papers at their Huntsville home. He included home security camera footage of a man driving up to Brooks’ house and appearing to walk into the garage with paperwork notifying the congressman that he was being sued.
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who served as a House manager in Donald Trump’s last impeachment trial, filed a lawsuit in March against the former president and others, including Brooks, whose actions he charges led to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Brooks has come under fire for telling the pro-Trump rally that preceded the Capitol riot that, “today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”
Brooks has maintained his words were intended to fire up the crowd for the next election cycle but were misconstrued as advocating the violence that ensued.
“Anyone with a brain larger than a pea knew that I was not advocating violence,” Brooks told The Associated Press earlier this year.
Swalwell had indicated in an earlier court filing that he was having trouble serving the lawsuit papers to Brooks. The process server Christian Seklecki wrote in a court affidavit that he walked into the open garage and put the papers at the feet of Brooks’ wife. She then yelled at him to leave, he wrote.
Brooks wrote in the fundraising email that “Martha was terrified when she looked up and saw this crazed man, two feet from her with a camera in her face.” The video appears to show Seklecki walk into the garage and then get chased out by Martha Brooks.
Brooks filed a police complaint over the incident. Philip Andonian, Swalwell’s attorney, told news outlets that the service was legal.
Brooks is one of three Republicans running for the Senate seat being vacated by Shelby who is retiring. Katie Boyd Britt, the former head of the Alabama Business Council and Shelby’s former chief of staff, and former Trump ambassador Lynda Blanchard are also running in the primary.
Blanchard’s and Boyd’s campaigns did not respond to an email seeking comment.