We reported yesterday on a breaking article from Rolling Stone that detailed the involvement of several members of Congress in the planning of the January 6th protests that turned into an insurrection. The inside sources interviewed by the magazine told reporters under condition of anonymity who they talked to, how often, and how personally involved each one of them had been.

It didn’t take long for at least one of those Congresscritters to break their silence and deny everything: Alabama’s Mo Brooks. The anonymous protest planners who are now cooperating with a House investigation into the affair didn’t paint Brooks as having been as involved as, say, Arizona’s Paul Gosar — who apparently offered pardons in advance — but they did name names, and Brooks was on a short list.

Now the 5-term Republican Representative is publicly denying he was involved at all. But if he had been, that would have been cool, he implied. Using a tactic that sleazy lawyers have employed since the dawn of courtrooms, Brooks first pushed all potential responsibility for involvement onto his staff, then denied that they were involved either, then said he would have liked it if his staff had helped the insurrectionists.

Quite frankly, I’d be proud of them if they did help organize a First Amendment rally to protest voter fraud and election theft.

That was all a part of the “big lie” that Trump and his cronies pushed after the election — that the process had been corrupted through voter fraud and the election stolen. Brooks went on to tell reporters with AL.com during a phone interview Monday that “he could not recall if he participated in any similar ‘Save America’ or ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies between the day after the election and Jan. 6, although he said he ‘certainly’ did not attend any with President Trump.”

Isn’t it amazing how Republicans can’t remember what they did do, but know for sure the things they didn’t do? Frankly, if Rep. Brooks (as a politician) can’t remember having attended a political rally less than a year ago, maybe he shouldn’t be in Congress in the first place.