House Republicans Demand Answers From D.C.’s A.G. Over Failed Lawsuit Targeting Maryland Gun Stores

House Republicans are demanding answers from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb over a recently dismissed lawsuit he filed against three Maryland gun stores with the help of a major gun control organization. 

Schwalb, not only enlisted the aid of law firm Perkins Coie, which has actively worked in anti-gun litigation before. He teamed up with Everytown Law in the civil suit against the FFLs, which alleged that the stores “knowingly participated in straw purchase gun sales”, despite the fact that neither the ATF nor the Maryland State Police found any evidence of criminal activity on the part of the store’s owners or employees. 

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer and Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement Chairman Clay Higgins recently blasted Schwalb for the “politically motivated lawfare case” and announced they’ve requested Schwalb hand over all  “communications, documents, and agreements exchanged between the D.C. Attorney General’s office and Perkins and Coie LLP and Everytown Law in relation to this case.”  

The Attorney General’s office weaponized legal resources and sued these gun stores at the expense of American taxpayers, despite state and federal law enforcement agencies determining that no state and federal laws were broken.  
 
“The 42-page complaint, filled with innuendo and unsubstantiated assertions, appears intended to destroy the reputation of legal businesses. As the U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly reaffirmed the Constitutional right of U.S. citizens to bear arms, litigation intended to smother gun stores and manufacturers represents an unlawful attack on Second Amendment rights,” continued the lawmakers. “The assertion that the charges in question were devoid of facts is not just the Committee’s view: it was the conclusion of the Judge who dismissed the case “with prejudice, and without leave to amend.” 

Dismissed with prejudice means that Schwalb can’t amend his complaint and refile the lawsuit against the FFLs. and the judge didn’t make that decision based on some sort of technical deficiency. His order declared “the complaint is devoid of facts” supporting Schwalb’s assertions and repeatedly declared that the initial complaint was “without factual support.” 

In their letter to Schwalb, Comer and Higgins requested the AG turn over:

• Documents and information sufficient to show how much your office spent on outside counsel in this case.
• Any and all retainer agreements with outside counsel related to this case as well as all supporting documents, including but not limited to, the invoices filed and paid to Perkins Coie LLP and Everytown Law related to this litigation.
• All communications between yourself or any employee of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia with Perkins Coie LLP and Everytown Law containing any of the following search terms: “United Guns;” “ACEJ;” “Engage Armament;” or “Atlantic Guns.”
• All communications with law enforcement agencies, including any views or insights from agencies, including but not limited to the Maryland State Police and the ATF, conveyed about the transactions.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown was also a part of the litigation, but the House Oversight Committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over his office. Congress, does, on the other hand, have oversight over D.C.’s local government, and I imagine that Comer and Higgins can probably find a federal judge who’ll compel Schwalb to comply with the document request if he decides to withhold the requested information.

While Schwalb’s website still has the anti-gun diatribe that masqueraded as the press release announcing the litigation, the page that goes to the complaint itself was taken down at some point… probably after a judge rejected the A.G’s baseless attacks on the gun stores. 

In that release, Everytown Law’s Eric Tirschwell accused the gun shop of fueling “local gun violence and put[ting] the safety of countless individuals on the line by diverting guns into the illegal secondary market through obvious straw purchases.” 

In truth, it sounds like the gun stores were also the victims of a straw purchasing scheme. If Joe Biden’s ATF didn’t think the shops did anything wrong, and the Maryland State Police decided the gun stores didn’t break the law, I’d say that’s more than enough evidence to exonerate the FFLs. 

It’s great to see Comer and Higgins take an interest in Schwalb’s attempt to vilify the gun stores with the help of anti-gun litigators and one of the biggest gun control groups in the nation. Will the D.C. Attorney General even respond to their document request by the June 25 deadline, or will the Committee have to escalate their investigation in the weeks ahead? I guess we’ll see, but Schwalb can’t make this investigation go away by simply pretending it doesn’t exist.