A trial in Texas relating to the “Trump Train” highway confrontation is expected to begin this week.
The trial is focused on claims that prior to the 2020 presidential elections, supporters of former President Donald Trump disrupted the Biden-Harris campaign by harassing one of their buses in Texas.
The trial over the allegations against the “Trump Train” will begin in Texas on Monday and comes as Vice President Kamala Harris continues her race for the White House after President Biden announced his decision to step down from the race.
Democrats aboard the bus said they feared for their lives as Trump supporters in dozens of trucks and cars harassed their convoy for over 90 minutes, nearly causing collisions. They reported that a Biden-Harris campaign staffer’s car was hit, and the bus driver had to repeatedly swerve to avoid accidents.
Vehicles participating in the Trump Train caravan on wait in interstate traffic on Nov. 1, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. On Sept. 9, 2024, a trail is set to begin for a “Trump Train” accused of harassing a Biden-Harris campaign bus in 2020.
Jon Cherry/Getty Images
The lawsuit against the “Trump Train” says “For at least 90 minutes, defendants terrorized and menaced the driver and passengers.”
“They played a madcap game of highway ‘chicken’ coming within three to four inches of the bus. They tried to run the bus off the road,” the lawsuit alleged.
In November 2020, the FBI announced that they were investigating the incident prompting Trump to respond and defend his supporters.
“In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!” Trump wrote in a post on social media, sharing a statement from the FBI.
One of the plaintiffs is former Texas state senator and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis, who was on the bus that day. Davis gained national attention in 2013 for her 13-hour filibuster against an anti-abortion bill in the Texas Capitol. The other plaintiffs include a campaign volunteer, a staffer, and the bus driver.
Six defendants are named in the lawsuit, and it alleges that they violated the “Ku Klux Klan Act.” The act is a federal law from 1871 which prohibits political violence and political intimidation.
The same law was partially used to indict Trump on federal election interference charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results leading up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Originally enacted during the Reconstruction Era, the law was designed to protect Black men’s right to vote by prohibiting political violence.
Videos of the Oct. 30, 2020, confrontation, shared on social media—including footage recorded by Trump supporters—show cars and pickup trucks, many displaying large Trump flags, surrounding the campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin. According to the lawsuit, the Trump supporters boxed in the bus, slowed it down, blocked it from exiting the highway, and repeatedly forced the driver to make evasive maneuvers to avoid collisions.
Francisco Canseco, the attorney representing three of the defendants, stated that his clients acted within the law and did not violate the free speech rights of those on the bus.
“It’s more of a constitutional issue,” Canseco said. “It’s more of who has the greater right to speak behind their candidate.”
Judge Robert Pitman, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, is set to preside over the trial.
In response to defendants arguing that they had a First Amendment right to support their preferred candidate, Pitman previously said that “assaulting, intimidating, or imminently 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 previously wrote.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
