A jury in Texas began to deliberate Friday whether the so-called “Trump Train” that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus days before the 2020 election in a heated highway encounter amounted to political intimidation.
“This case is not about politics,” Robert Meyer, an attorney representing those aboard the bus, told the jury. “It’s about safety.”
The civil trial has spanned two weeks in a federal courthouse in Austin has included testimony from former Texas Democratic lawmaker Wendy Davis, who ran for governor in 2014, and is one of three people who was on board the bus and brought the lawsuit against six supporters of former President Donald Trump.
No criminal charges have been filed against the Trump supporters, who have argued that their actions during the convoy on Oct. 30, 2020, were protected speech.
Video that Davis recorded from the bus shows pickup trucks with large Trump flags slowing down to box in the bus as it tried to move away from the group of Trump supporters. One of the defendants hit a campaign volunteer’s car while the trucks occupied all lanes of traffic, forcing the bus and everyone around it to a 15 mph crawl.
During closing arguments Friday, Meyer argued that the defendants’ conversations leading up to the convoy about “Operation Block the Bus,” dissemination of flyers and aggressive driving met the criteria for political intimidation. Jurors also listened to several 911 calls from bystanders who were fearful that the convoy would cause a collision.
“This wasn’t some kind of peaceful protest,” Meyer said. “The bus swarmed on all sides.”
Attorneys for the defendants argued they did not intend to hurt anyone or scheme a plan for Democrats to cancel their remaining campaign events in Texas.
“There was no civil assault because there was no intent to hurt anybody,” attorney Francisco Canseco said. Canseco represents Eliazar Cisneros, who is accused of hitting a volunteer’s car that was following the bus.
The jury will have to decide whether the defendants made an informal agreement to intimidate, harass or injure the Democrats on the bus in an effort to suppress their political support of President Joe Biden.
See here and here for day-before and Day One updates for this trial, which took two weeks to complete. How long the jury will take, I have no idea. We could get a verdict on Monday, or it could drag out for days. In the meantime, there were several Chron dispatches from the trial, which I’m including here as a catch-up. I’ll be sure to blog about the verdict.
Bus driver says he felt ‘under attack’ during 2020 ‘Trump Train’ incident.
The driver of a Biden-Harris campaign bus told jurors Wednesday that he felt “under attack” when the bus was surrounded by drivers in a “Trump Train” on Interstate 35 in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Breaking into tears and at times struggling to speak, Timothy Holloway said he had a clenching feeling in his stomach and sweaty palms as he worked to stay calm during the incident, saying the “Trump Train” drivers forced him to slow down to speeds as low as 5 or 10 miles per hour.
“I was the captain of the ship. I was the pilot of the plane,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re trying to do.”
[…]
On the third day of the civil trial in federal court in Austin on Wednesday, plaintiffs’ attorney John Paredes questioned Holloway about how he responded when the bus he was driving was surrounded by dozens of Trump supporters in pickups and SUVs on Oct. 30, 2020, between San Antonio and Austin.
Holloway — who operates his own business as a bus driver and transportation broker —was driving the bus after it left a get-out-the-vote event in San Antonio, with stops planned in San Marcos and Austin. Holloway said he got an “eerie feeling” when he saw Trump supporters’ vehicles lined up along the interstate waiting for the bus around the Solms Road exit near New Braunfels. He estimated there were 30 to 40 vehicles in the “Trump Train” at one point.
“I can’t really outrun these cars,” he said. “You have to do whatever the car in front of you does. I have to slow down to 15 miles per hour” to avoid hitting other vehicles.
Holloway and the other plaintiffs have said they feared for their lives during the incident, and say the “Trump Train” drivers caused several near-collisions and forced Holloway to repeatedly swerve to avoid crashing.
The bus, which weighs about 50,000 pounds, could only brake slowly and had a wide turning radius that limited his response, Holloway said. He said he was taught to avoid obstacles and never to swerve the bus because “that’s an easy way to lose control.”
If he had tried to navigate the bus through the group of vehicles, it might have led to deaths, Holloway said.
Defense attorney Erin Mersino asked Holloway why he couldn’t have pulled off the freeway and sought safety at a police station, if he felt threatened. When Holloway replied that there are usually stoplights on the frontage roads along the highway, where the “Trump Train” drivers might have surrounded the stopped bus, she said he could have run the lights if he was really in fear for his life.
‘Trump Train’ was about free speech, not intimidation, witness says.
A New Braunfels woman who helped organize the “Trump Train” that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on Interstate 35 ahead of the 2020 election testified Monday that the incident was an exercise in free speech and the drivers involved were not trying to intimidate anyone.
Randi Ceh was among a group of supporters of then-President Donald Trump that surrounded the Biden-Harris bus on Oct. 30, 2020, between San Antonio and Austin. Ceh and her husband, Steve Ceh, are among six people involved in the incident who are being sued by three people who were on the Biden-Harris campaign bus when the confrontation occurred.
[…]
Testifying in federal court in Austin on Monday, Randi Ceh insisted she had no intent of intimidating the people on the bus or impeding their progress when she wrote a social media post encouraging members of New Braunfels “Trump Train” Facebook group to meet at the Solms Road exit of the interstate to wait for the campaign bus.
Ceh was working that day and only briefly joined the “Trump Train” because she happened to catch it on her way home, she said.
“It was just really happenstance that I ended up being there,” she said.
Ceh described the event as an “our team versus your team” political exercise. She said she had no intent of intimidating the people on the bus or impeding their progress.
Sam Hall, an attorney for the plaintiffs, attempted to show that Ceh was aware that the convoy was impeding the bus’s progress, pointing to posts on the Facebook group by others saying “SURROUNDED” and “They did not stop! Too much Trump support so they are going straight through to Austin.”
He asked Ceh if she had used her ability as the Facebook group’s administrator to take down such posts, and she said she had not, citing users’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. He pointed also to her use of the hashtag “#BlocktheBus” in her posts.
“We used our first amendment right to drive down the highway,” she said. “We did a ‘Trump Train’ and it was cool.”
Slang, emojis take center stage in ‘Trump Train’ civil trial.
In the civil trial this week over whether drivers in a “Trump Train” hindered a Biden-Harris campaign when they surrounded it on Interstate 35 the week before the 2020 election, one of the many points of contention is the meaning of slang used in Facebook posts and messages – and even some emojis.
Attorneys for three plaintiffs who were on the bus that day – former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, former campaign staffer David Gins and bus driver Timothy Holloway – have led a seven-member jury through reams of social media posts made by the six defendants in an attempt to show that they intended to block the bus’s progress, or at least were aware they were doing so, as they tracked its progress between San Antonio and Austin on Oct. 30, 2020.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law intended to prevent political violence and intimidation tactics. The suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages.
The defendants — Dolores Park, Steve Ceh, Randi Ceh, Robert Mesaros, Joeylynn Mesaros and Eliazar Cisneros — have disputed the lawsuit’s allegations, saying the people on the bus were not in danger and the incident was not an attempt at intimidation.
In federal court in Austin on Wednesday, plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Meyer displayed screenshots showing defendant Joeylynn Mesaros, of New Braunfels, responding with clapping emojis to a message on Facebook that day saying, “Yes patriots get them out,” and replying “Bye bye” to a message saying, “Let’s show Kamala the way out of Texas.” At the time, some members of the “Trump Train” believed that then-vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was on the bus.
Meyer also pointed to a text message Mesaros sent that day saying, “we’re raging to chase down this Biden bus,” and a social media post she made after the incident saying the “Trump Train” had provided the Biden campaign “a friendly escort out of town.”
Throughout her impassioned testimony, Mesaros pushed back against Meyer’s portrayal of her posts as amounting to a “celebration” that the bus was kept from campaign events.
Previous testimony in the trial, which is now in its second week, established that the presence of the “Trump Train” led the Biden campaign to cancel a planned event at Texas State University in San Marcos out of fear for the safety of those who would attend. At times, the convoy of dozens of vehicles forced the bus to slow down to speeds as low as 15 miles an hour.
“We might have different definitions of ‘celebrate,’” Mesaros said. “It was my objective to have fun. Not to get sued.”
There’s more to each story, so go read them all. I can’t wait to see what the jury does with this.