The Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund on Monday called on Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, to be disbarred for his actions connected to attempts to delegitimize the presidential election and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The SPLC’s Action Fund in a complaint to the Alabama State Bar Disciplinary Commission wrote that Brooks “promoted unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, mobilized domestic extremists, and marshalled a failed coup of the U.S. government that resulted in multiple deaths and arrests, including two of his constituents.”
“In the aftermath of the deadly insurrection, he has doubled down on his lies and relied upon his position as a member of this Bar in support thereof,” the complaint continues. “His conduct resurrects the South’s dark tradition of politicians orchestrating political and extrajudicial violence with impunity. This must stop. Accordingly, the Alabama Bar Association should disbar Rep. Brooks for violating Alabama Rules for Professional Conduct.”
In the 203-page complaint, SPLC notes Brooks’s many tweets promoting theories of rampant voter fraud, both prior to and after the election occurring. State and federal officials after investigations have said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election. Numerous court cases brought by former President Donald Trump and allies alleging the same have been dismissed.
The SPLC in the complaint says that Brooks may have committed treason by “levying a political war” against the U.S., and could also be guilty of committing the crimes of rebellion/insurrection, seditious conspiracy, advocating overthrow of government and inciting a riot, among other possible criminal charges.
“From fall 2020 to present he has promoted misrepresentations and falsehoods about the existence of voter fraud and election irregularities in a subversive effort to delegitimatize the 2020 General Election and its results,” the complaint reads.
The SPLC in the complaint cites APR’s Jan. 12 reporting. The article notes that right-wing political activist and an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” rally, Ali Alexander, posted a video days prior to the riot in which he named Brooks and Arizona U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs as in on the plan.
Alexander made similar statements implicating all three lawmakers in two other separate videos.
“So I want to let you guys know how we’re responding, because I was the person who came up with the January 6th idea, with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks and then Congressman Andy Biggs,” Alexander said in one live stream video.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress, while they were voting, so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside,” Alexander continued in the video.
Brooks, through a spokesman, told APR he didn’t plan the Jan. 6 rally with Alexander, and “has no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is.”
“Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” Brooks told the crowd prior to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brooks has said his comments prior to the riot were only meant to convey the need to fight politically, and weren’t a call to use physical violence.
A request for comment on the SPLC complaint to a Brooks spokesman wasn’t immediately responded to Monday.
