This just got even uglier for Mo Brooks
House Republican Mo Brooks had a terrible day on Tuesday, with the Department of Justice ruling that he was outside the scope of his job duties when he addressed and fired up a crowd of insurrectionists on January 6th just before they invaded the Capitol. Wednesday is arguably going even worse for Brooks.
Mo Brooks, who appears to be in panic mode, is now claiming that he was wearing body armor when he addressed the January 6th crowd. Perhaps he thinks this helps his cause somehow. But in reality it merely demonstrates that Brooks knew he was walking into a violent scenario when he chose to address the insurrectionists. This proves that he knew there was a good chance his words would indeed incite violence.
If Mo Brooks were to be criminally charged for inciting the insurrection, his most straightforward reasonable doubt defense would center around the claim that he had no idea the crowd was going to turn violent and storm the Capitol when he told them that the election results should be overthrown. But Brooks just threw away his own best argument.
The DOJ tends to make charging decisions based on the likelihood of conviction at trial. The odds of Mo Brooks being convicted just went up. This means that the odds of him being indicted probably just went up as well. Combine this with the DOJ’s ruling that he was outside the bounds of his job duties when he addressed that crowd, and it’s getting uglier for him by the minute. Will he keep running his mouth and make things even worse for himself?
