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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — 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.
On Friday, comments outside the courtroom got heated between gallery members and one woman was escorted out.
Those on the bus — including Davis, a campaign staffer and the driver — repeatedly called 911 asking for help and a police escort through San Marcos, but when no law enforcement arrived, the campaign canceled the event and pushed forward to Austin.
The trial began with plaintiffs' attorneys saying that organizers targeted the bus in a calculated attack to intimidate the Democrats, arguing that it violated the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” an 1871 federal law that bans political violence and intimidation.
The City of San Marcos settled a separate lawsuit filed by the same three Democrats against the police, agreeing to pay $175,000 and mandate political violence training for law enforcement.
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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 undercovered issues.