On April 19, 2023, a bizarre interaction occurred in the Capitol building in Austin. During a house bill hearing, State Representative Jeff Leach from Plano was served with notice of a defamation lawsuit against him.
After Scott Braddock of the Quorum Report broke the news on Wednesday morning, Current Revolt shared a 42-second video of the incident. The video shows a man who signed up to testify during the bill hearing apparently under false pretenses, only to reveal he was a process server there to deliver a citation notice to Rep. Leach.
“I’m actually a representative of the National Process Service,” said the man after Leach asked him to confirm he was there to testify on the bill. “You have 20 days from today to contact Parker County clerk’s office,” he added before standing up to serve Leach the notice.
The defamation lawsuit against Leach was filed by Morgan McComb, whose Twitter bio describes her as, “A TRUE Conservative TX Grassroots Leader, Mom & Patriot Community RE-Organizer. Rescues horses. God Guns Guts and Glory!”
McComb, who according to the lawsuit is “a member of the Texas Nationalist Movement, an organization dedicated to seeing Texas return to being an independent nation through a legal process starting with placing a referendum on the ballot”, is now suing Leach for $250,000 alleging defamation.
A copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Texan shows the conflict arose due to an interaction between Rep. Leach and McComb regarding HB 3596, also known as the Texit bill which calls for a statewide, non-binding referendum to whether Texas should secede from the U.S.
In early March, Leach expressed his opposition to HB 3596 by calling it a “reckless, seditious and treasonous bill” on Twitter. McComb responded “@leachfortexas Are you accusing me of treasonous sedition? A person who is tired of living under the boot of the federal govt. Texans who love this state?” to which Leach responded in turn, “If you believe Texas should secede from the United States of American# - then yes. Unequivocally yes.”
According to the Dallas Observer, McComb was arrested in October 2020 for allegedly creating a Facebook account using the name and photo of a rival Republican campaign operative in Frisco. In 2021 she was indicted on a charge of online impersonation, although the case is still pending.
As if this story wasn’t convoluted enough, McComb’s attorney, Paul Davis from Frisco, has been making rounds in the news in the past for the impact his involvement in the Jan 6th Capitol riots has had in his own life. According to the Insider, Davis said his fianceé left him two weeks after his trip to Washington and friends cut ties with him. “Everything that I'd worked hard for 10 years evaporated overnight," he said. However, he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and stands by his decision of participating in the riot.
In regards to the defamation lawsuit against Leach, Davis told The Texan “Rep. Leach has made it clear in his statements on Twitter that he values unconditional loyalty to an oppressive federal government over Texans’ rights to freedom and self-government as guaranteed by the Texas Constitution.”
Leach issued a statement on Thursday afternoon in response to the lawsuit, saying “Needless to say, the claims are entirely without merit and I intend on fighting back — and doing so vigorously. As Chairman of the Texas House Judiciary Committee — I know first-hand that the Texas Justice system works to ensure justice and to safeguard our Constitutional liberties and freedoms. And I am confident that this case will be no different. This will be my only statement on this matter and any future inquiries will be directed to my counsel.”
