Trial begins over Texas ‘Trump Train’ highway confrontation
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal trial begins Monday over allegations that supporters of former President Donald Trump threatened and harassed a Biden-Harris campaign bus in Texas four years ago, disrupting the campaign on the final day of early voting.
The civil trial over the so-called “Trump train” comes as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris enter the final two months of their head-to-head battle for the White House in November.
Democrats on the bus said they feared for their lives as Trump supporters in dozens of trucks and cars nearly crashed into them, disrupting their convoy for more than 90 minutes and striking the car of a Biden-Harris campaign worker. The bus driver had to swerve repeatedly for his own safety.
“For at least 90 minutes, the defendants terrorized and threatened the driver and passengers,” the complaint alleges. “They played a frenzied game of ‘chicken’ on the highway and came within three to four inches of the bus. They attempted to run the bus off the road.”
The confrontation on the freeway sparked an FBI investigation, which led then-President Trump to state his belief that: “These patriots have done nothing wrong.”
Among the plaintiffs is former Texas state senator and Democratic candidate for governor Wendy Davis, who was on the bus that day. Davis rose to fame in 2013 with her 13-hour filibuster of an anti-abortion bill in the state Capitol. The other three plaintiffs are a campaign volunteer, a staffer and the bus driver.
The lawsuit names six defendants and accuses them of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 federal law designed to stop political violence and intimidation tactics.
The same law was used in part to charge Trump with allegations of interference in federal elections on attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan 6 Uprising at the US CapitolThe law was passed by Congress during the Reconstruction era and was intended to protect the voting rights of black men by prohibiting political violence.
Videos of the Oct. 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 — pulling alongside the campaign bus as it traveled from San Antonio to Austin. Trump’s supporters at times cornered the bus, slowed it down, stopped it from pulling off the freeway and repeatedly forced the bus driver to take evasive action to avoid a collision, the lawsuit says.
Over the previous two days, Biden-Harris supporters had been subjected to death threats, with some Trump supporters displaying weapons, the lawsuit said. Those threats, combined with the confrontation on the highway, led Democrats to cancel an event later in the day.
The lawsuit, which seeks undisclosed damages, alleges the defendants were members of local groups near San Antonio who coordinated the confrontation.
Francisco Canseco, a lawyer for three of the suspects, said his clients acted lawfully and did not infringe on the freedom of expression of the bus’s occupants.
“It’s more of a constitutional issue,” Canseco said. “It’s more of a question of who has the greatest right to speak out behind their candidate.”
Judge Robert Pitman, appointed by former President Barack Obama, will preside over the trial on Monday. He denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and ruled last month that the KKK Act prohibits physical intimidation of people traveling to political rallies, even if racial bias is not a factor.
While one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, argued that his group had a First Amendment right to express support for their candidate, the judge wrote that “attacking, intimidating or threatening others with violence is not protected speech.”
“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 over the “Trump Train” alleged that San Marcos police violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by not sending a police escort after multiple 911 calls were made and a bus passenger said his life was threatened. It accused officers of secretly laughing and joking about the 911 calls. San Marcos settled the lawsuit in 2023 for $175,000 and a requirement that law enforcement receive training on responding to political violence.
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Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.