As anyone with a “Schoolhouse Rock“-level understanding of U.S. civics understands, the duty of the legislative branch of government—and the members of Congress who comprise it—is to pass laws.
On Tuesday night, the Department of Justice emphasized that those responsibilities do not include instigating an attack on the U.S. Capitol. The seemingly intuitive clarification came as bad news to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a Donald Trump-loyalist congressman trying to fend off a lawsuit by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) accusing him of doing just that on Jan. 6th.
“The complaint alleges that Brooks conspired with others to instigate a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and incited a riot there,” the Justice Department’s trial attorney Taheerah K. El-Amin noted in a 22-page brief on Tuesday evening.
“Instigating such an attack plainly could not be within the scope of federal employment,” it continues.
“Kicking Ass”
Swalwell claims that Brooks shares responsibility for inciting the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by amplifying Trump’s lie of election fraud and delivering an inflammatory speech in front of the Ellipse, quoted extensively in the lawsuit.