Thread by @kpolantz

Real talk: Rep. Eric Swalwell technically can't hand Rep. Mo Brooks his insurrection lawsuit when they pass each other in the halls of Congress or when they're both voting on the House floor.

Swalwell has to use a third party.

cnn.com/2021/06/03/pol…

Or! Brooks could have a lawyer waive service, or sign a waiver accepting the lawsuit.

Yes, there are rules around this. It's a whole thing. law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rul…

To rewind, this twist came about yesterday. Swalwell sued his colleague Brooks, but Swalwell's lawyers (slash-their process server) say they can't get to Brooks, for a variety of reasons, some explained and some unexplained. Swalwell's team hires a P.I.

cnn.com/2021/06/02/pol…

Swalwell's team, as one does, goes to the court to ask for more time. And, as one can, they ask the judge to order the US Marshals Service to serve Brooks (An option in the rules!)

But judge says no, citing separation of powers concerns.

Now let's take a trip down memory lane w the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, because, like I said, serving defendants lawsuits and defendants not wanting to be served is a whole thing.

In a lawsuit that's similar to Swalwell's, Rep. Bennie Thompson sued Trump over the insurrection. Someone at Mar-a-Lago signed "Ricky" to accept service.

Trump's lawyer then said Ricky was an "unknown" person and questioned whether that was even legally valid, before moving on.

When Dominion Voting Systems sued Sidney Powell over her election fraud claims, the company said it too hired private investigators, pursued her "across state lines."
When the process server found Powell, the cops were there to witness.

Here's the court record + police report:

This @yaffaesque story has amazing process service anecdotes from 2014/2015.
Putin foe Bill Browder, pursued by Prevezon, let a subpoena "drop to the ground." Later he "leaped out of a waiting town car," fleeing into Manhattan to avoid service again.

newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…

Since we're talking about Russia, remember the troll farm case from the Mueller investigation?
Mueller tried to get the summons ferried through the Russian Prosecutor General, who wouldn't take it.
Then US lawyers showed up for the corporate defendants, Concord, playing hardball

Just remembered one more!

That time a process server had to knock on the front door of Chief Justice John Roberts' home in Maryland.
(And the process server gave Roberts rave reviews.)

A @Legal_Times classic via the one and only @MikeScarcella:
legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/01/pr…