A Texas jury cleared nearly all six supporters of former President Donald Trump who were accused of threatening Biden campaign officials on a bus four years ago.
On Monday, a seven-person Austin jury found five Trump supporters innocent of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 federal law targeting political violence and intimidation tactics.
Just one of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, was ordered to pay $30,000 in damages to the plaintiffs and $10,000 to the bus driver, Timothy Holloway.
The court’s decision comes after the so-called Trump Train drivers faced a lawsuit for following and boxing in a campaign bus for President Joe Biden on Oct. 30, 2020.
The New Braunfels Trump Train was comprised of a group of trucks waving Trump and American flags that trailed the campaign bus down a Texas highway for roughly 90 minutes. After one defendant collided with a campaign volunteer’s car, all drivers were reduced to a 15 mph crawl.
Texas Democrats canceled three scheduled campaign events that day due to “safety concerns,” while Democratic state Rep. Terry Canales asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to open an investigation into the “multi-county, criminal behavior on 1-35.”
Passengers on the bus, including former Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis and former Biden campaign staffer David Gins, sued the drivers in 2021, alleging they feared for their lives.
“Dangerously surrounding somebody on the highway, anyone, a Republican, Democrat, anyone on the highway and forcing them out of town isn’t OK, doesn’t have a place in Texas, doesn’t have a place in America and it has consequences,” prosecuting attorney Samuel Hall said during an opening statement at the trial.
Although the Democrats claimed the drivers participated in an orchestrated conspiracy, the defendants argued they had no knowledge of each other before or during the incident.
When the incident occurred in 2020, Trump criticized the FBI for opening an investigation into the incident as he defended “patriots” who did “nothing wrong.”
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! https://t.co/of6Lna3HMU
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2020
“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!” the former president said in a post to X, referencing the protests that swept across the country in the summer of 2020.
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A lawyer for one of the defendants argued that while her actions may have “not been likable,” they failed to meet the threshold of violating the law.
“It may not be likable. It may not be her proudest moment. But it’s not a violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act,” Erin Mersino, a lawyer for defendant Dolores Park said.
