It appears to have been an unfortunate few hours for United States Representative Morris Jackson "Mo" Brooks Jr. Having been served with a lawsuit that sought to hold him partially accountable for the US Capitol hill riots on January 6, the Alabama lawmaker is now a trending trending topic on Twitter. But it's not quite what you might be thinking.
You see, having received the papers from California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and his team, Brooks took to Twitter with an outraged post, threatening to take action against them. Unfortunately his photo of his laptop screen included the small post-it note bearing his Gmail password and pin number and was included in the tweet. We feel compelled to note here that several hours later, the tweet remains un-deleted.
According to reports, Swalwell's legal team had faced difficulty in contacting and serving Brooks, eventually resorting to hiring a private investigator. On Sunday, these were left the papers with Brooks' wife at their Alabama home.
"Well, Swalwell FINALLY did his job, served complaint (on my WIFE). HORRIBLE Swalwell’s team committed a CRIME by unlawfully sneaking INTO MY HOUSE & accosting my wife! Alabama Code 13A-7-2: 1st degree criminal trespass. Year in jail. $6000 fine. More to come!" he tweeted alongside the unfortunate screengrab.
Twitter however is not having any of it. While some wondered why it had been so very difficult to track Brooks down, others pointed out that he was a member of several government committees. As his official website explains, he serves on "two Congressional committees that are key to Alabama's Fifth District: House Armed Services and Science, Space, and Technology".
As one Twitter user summed up: "A Member of Congress, one who happens to be on an Armed Services subcommittee where he may vote on national security issues, tweeted a photo that included his e-mail password."
And while we at FPJ have not tried utilising his password to see if it works, enterprising netizens have repeatedly floated the idea. It is however unclear whether anyone took it upon themselves to try it out. Considering that the tweet remains, we hope that the passcodes in question have been changed.
"I, too, am able to vote on national security policies while tweeting pics of my Gmail password to anyone in the world and then leave it up for 6 hours and counting," joked another user.
