A jury trial starting Monday in Austin, Texas, will seek to hold Trump supporters accountable for allegedly ambushing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ campaign bus on a major highway in the state ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege that they were subjected to threats and intimidation for more than 90 minutes while taking part in a bus tour to canvass for Democratic candidates in the final days of the election.
At least 40 cars flying “Make America Great Again” flags formed the so-called “Trump Train” and surrounded the bus, trying to force it off the road, playing what the lawsuits claim is a “reckless game of highway ‘chicken.'”
The plaintiffs, who include bus drivers, Biden campaign staff and former Texas senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, say they were forced to stop campaign activities due to fears of repeated threats. They are seeking punitive damages under both Texas law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal law enacted during Reconstruction after the Civil War to end political violence and voter intimidation.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the case is a test of the safeguards of modern democracy.
“The violence and intimidation that plaintiffs suffered on this highway simply for supporting the candidate of their choice is an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans,” said John Paredes, counsel and co-counsel for Protect Democracy, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit.
Monday’s trial, Servini v. Cisneros, is one of the most significant legal battles to arise from the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as alleged acts of political intimidation by Trump supporters in the 2020 election. By contrast, the Texas case is a civil lawsuit brought by plaintiffs seeking damages while hundreds of criminal charges have been filed over the events of Jan. 6.
But the scale of the case is large, with five named defendants, plus unidentified and unnamed individuals, allegedly involved in a conspiracy to terrorize the Biden-Harris campaign.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of using force to intimidate political opponents, alleges they engaged in civil assault and civil conspiracy to suppress the Biden-Harris campaign’s political voice, and seeks punitive damages and compensatory damages.
The problems began shortly after the Biden-Harris campaign announced that it would embark on a three-day “Soul of the Nation” bus tour in Texas on October 27, 2020. The tour was supposed to take Biden campaign surrogates to several high-profile rallies and rallies.
By Oct. 28, Trump supporters on social media platforms had begun calling for the formation of a “Trump Train,” a gathering of trucks and other vehicles to show support for the then-Republican president’s reelection. “We should really flood them,” one Alamo Trump Train member posted that day, referring to the Biden-Harris buses.
That afternoon, the then-president’s son, Don Trump Jr., posted an invitation to a rally on Twitter (now X) to Trump supporters. He wrote, “It would be great if we all got together and went to McAllen and gave Kamala Harris a lovely welcome on the Trump Train. Go out and have fun. Have fun.”
Flag-waving trucks driven by Trump supporters began following the Biden-Harris bus on October 28 and 29. One of the trucks was decorated as a “Trump hearse” with a sign on the outside saying “Collecting Every Democrat Vote.”
On Friday, October 30, more vehicles showed up, drawn to the melee by some Trump supporters who mistakenly believed Kamala Harris would be on the Democratic bus that day (Harris was actually campaigning in McAllen and Fort Worth). The lawsuit alleges that a group of Trump supporters conspired to ambush the bus on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin.
Cars from Trump’s train swarmed around his tour bus, coming within inches of it and forcing the driver to slow down, and the plaintiffs allege that some of the attendees live-streamed the incident on social media and bragged about their aggressive driving.
One of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, is accused of sideswiping an SUV driven by a Biden-Harris campaign staffer behind a bus. Cisneros later bragged, “I hit that motherfucker,” according to the complaint.
Bus passengers asked for a police escort, but no one showed up. Another lawsuit, Servini v. Stapp, was settled in October when local police admitted they had fallen short and agreed to pay damages to those they had failed to keep safe.
The lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs suffered “lasting mental and emotional injuries.” Bus driver Timothy Holloway was so traumatized that he gave up his tour bus business and retired from driving.
Rep. Wendy Davis, who famously gave an 11-hour speech to stall an anti-abortion bill in the Texas Senate in 2013, said she suffered “significant emotional distress” and feared she would face physical harm from Trump supporters if she spoke publicly about her experience on the bus.
In court, lawyers for the plaintiffs will argue that the First Amendment protects free speech, but not the intimidation or threats of people who hold different political beliefs. “As long as groups are permitted to intimidate those they disagree with into giving up their constitutional rights, accountability is necessary for our democracy to function,” the lawsuit states.