AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal trial will begin Monday over allegations that supporters of former President Donald Trump threatened and harassed the Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas four years ago, disrupting the campaign’s final day of early voting.
The civil trial over the so-called “Trump train” begins as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris compete in November in their final two-month battle for the White House.
Democrats on the bus said they feared for their lives as Trump supporters in dozens of trucks and cars nearly caused collisions, disrupting the motorcade for more than 90 minutes, crashing into the car of a Biden-Harris campaign worker and forcing the bus driver to repeatedly swerve for safety. .
“The defendants terrorized and threatened the driver and passengers for at least 90 minutes,” according to the lawsuit. “They were playing a crazy game of highway ‘chicken’ that came within 3-4 inches of the bus. They were trying to run the bus off the road.”
The freeway confrontation prompted an FBI investigation that prompted then-President Trump to declare that he believed “these patriots did nothing wrong.”
Among those suing is former Texas state senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who was on the bus that day. Davis rose to prominence in 2013 with her 13-hour anti-abortion demonstration at the state Capitol. The other three plaintiffs are a campaign volunteer, an employee and a bus driver.
The lawsuit names six defendants, accusing them of violating the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law to end political violence and intimidation tactics.
The same law was used in part to impeach Trump for federal election meddling in the run-up to the January 6 U.S. Capitol uprising. Enacted by Congress during Reconstruction, the law was created to protect the right of black men to vote by outlawing political violence.
Videos of the October 30, 2020 confrontation shared on social media, including some recorded by Trump supporters, show a group of cars and pickup trucks, many decorated with large Trump flags, driving alongside the campaign bus as it travels. San Antonio to Austin. Trump supporters at times punched the bus, slowed it down, blocked it from exiting the highway and repeatedly forced the bus driver to make evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision, according to the suit.
In the previous two days, Biden-Harris supporters received death threats, and some Trump supporters displayed guns, according to the lawsuit. Those threats, along with the highway standoff, prompted Democrats to cancel the event later in the day.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, alleges that the defendants were members of local groups based near San Antonio that coordinated the clash.
Francisco Canseco, the lawyer for the three accused, said his clients acted legally and did not violate the freedom of speech of those on the bus.
“It’s more of a constitutional issue,” Canseco said. “It’s more about who has more right to speak behind their candidate.”
Judge Robert Pitman, a presiding judge appointed by former President Barack Obama, is scheduled to preside over Monday’s trial. He denied the defendants a preliminary hearing to obtain summary judgment in their favor and ruled last month that the KKK Act prohibits physical intimidation of people traveling to political rallies, even if racial prejudice is not a factor.
While one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, argued that his group had a First Amendment right to show support for its candidate, the judge wrote that “assaulting, intimidating or directly threatening others with force is not protected expression.”
“Just as the First Amendment does not protect a driver waving a political flag from running a red light, it does not protect defendants from allegedly threatening plaintiffs with reckless driving,” Pitman wrote.
An earlier lawsuit filed over the “Trump Train” alleged that the San Marcos Police Department violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by failing to send a police escort after several 911 calls and the bus driver said his life was threatened. It accused officials of privately laughing and joking at 911 calls. San Marcos settled in a 2023 lawsuit for $175,000 and a requirement that law enforcement be trained to respond to political violence.
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Lathan is a member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on classified issues.
