Judge dismisses Democratic lawmaker’s January 6 civil conspiracy lawsuit against Mo Brooks

By CNN Newsource

Published March 9, 2022 12:56 PM

By Tierney Sneed and Katelyn Polantz, CNN

A federal judge dismissed on Wednesday a January 6 lawsuit brought against Rep. Mo Brooks that had alleged the Alabama Republican engaged in a civil conspiracy.

US District Judge Amit Mehta’s move to dismiss the claims against Brooks was anticipated. Mehta wrote in a previous opinion in the case, which was brought by California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, that he was inclined to dismiss the claims against Brooks and the judge invited Brooks to formally request the dismissal.

Mehta on Wednesday also denied as moot a request from Brooks that the judge certify that the House member was acting in his official capacity in his January 6 rally remarks, which were a focus of Swalwell’s lawsuit. The Justice Department had previously refused to certify the alleged conduct as within the scope of his official role in a July filing, in which the department said it opposed stepping in as a defendant for Brooks in the case. By dismissing the case against Brooks altogether, the judge avoided resolving that dispute.

In his Wednesday order, Mehta echoed the conclusion that he had come to in the previous opinion, issued last month: that the remarks by Brooks at the rally — as well as the rally speeches by Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. also targeted in Swalwell’s complaint — were protected by the First Amendment.

“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,'” Mehta wrote, referencing a relevant Supreme Court precedent. The judge likewise dismissed against Brooks other claims in Swalwell’s lawsuit that had been previously dismissed against Giuliani and Trump Jr.

Mehta has allowed Swalwell’s case — and lawsuits filed by other Democratic lawmakers and by Capitol law enforcement officials — to move forward against former President Donald Trump, having rejected in the February 18 opinion Trump’s motion to dismiss.