A federal jury in Texas has cleared most of the ‘Trump Train’ drivers who surrounded the Biden-Harris campaign bus on a highway in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Five of the six defendants were cleared of all charges following a two-week trial in Austin. One man, however, was ordered to pay the other bus driver $10,000 and a further $30,000 in punitive damages.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) and five others who were either aboard the Biden campaign bus or driving nearby during the incident, concerned an event where their bus was traveling from San Antonio to Austin on the final day of early voting in Texas.
According to the lawsuit, a convoy of Trump supporters, driving cars and pickup trucks adorned with Trump flags, boxed in the bus on the highway.
The plaintiffs claimed that this recklessly endangered their safety and amounted to a form of voter intimidation, while also accusing them of Ku Klux Klan Act, which protects those engaged in political advocacy.
“I feel like they were enjoying making us afraid,” Davis testified during the trial. “It’s traumatic for all of us to revisit that day.”
No criminal charges against the Trump supporters were ever filed. Davis and her team have said they will appeal the decision.
The verdict was celebrated by Republican Congressman Chip Roy, who described it as a phony lawfare effort citing “ridiculous conspiracy laws.”
“Great news out of Austin as a jury rules in favor of conservative Trump Train Texans sued with backing of well-funded activists affiliated with Biden-Harris and Wendy Davis under ridiculous conspiracy laws,” he wrote on the X platform.
Great news out of Austin as a jury rules in favor of conservative Trump Train Texans sued with backing of well-funded activists affiliated with Biden-Harris and Wendy Davis under ridiculous conspiracy laws #lawfare
Texas jury clears most ‘Trump Train’ drivers in civil trial…
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) September 23, 2024
