It’s been four years since a campaign bus carrying Wendy Davis and others was nearly run off the road by a so-called “Trump Train” — a caravan of Republican activists waving giant flags showing support for Donald Trump.
Drivers of more than a dozen cars and trucks, honking and shouting, followed the bus on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and San Marcos, weaving in and out of traffic and causing a minor collision between a Biden campaign staffer following the bus and a Trump supporter.
Ultimately, the bus driver made an abrupt and speedy exit off the highway to lose the crowd.
Trump responded with enthusiastic approval: “I LOVE TEXAS!” he wrote in a tweet accompanied by a video of the incident. Democrats subsequently canceled three Biden campaign events in Central Texas due to safety concerns.
On Friday, the “Trump Train” heads to court in Austin. The trial stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed by Davis, a former state senator who became a Democratic sensation for her filibuster of an abortion restriction bill, along with the bus driver and a Biden campaign staffer. The trio sued multiple members of the caravan, alleging they violated state law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 by engaging in a conspiracy to disrupt the campaign and intimidate those on the bus.
With Trump back on the ballot, Davis and the others want to send a message that political intimidation will not go unpunished.
Davis and the two other plaintiffs — former campaign staffer David Gins and bus driver Timothy Holloway — said the members of the Trump Train attempted to prevent them from showing support for Biden.
“The violence and intimidation that our plaintiffs endured on the highway for simply supporting the candidate of their choice is an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans,” said John Paredes, an attorney for the plaintiffs who works with Protect Democracy, a Washington, D.C.-based group that combats authoritarian threats to American democracy. “Our plaintiffs are bravely standing up against this injustice to ensure that the trauma they endured catalyzes positive change rather than stains our democracy.”
The defendants, who have characterized their actions on I-35 as free speech, say the lawsuit is an example of how the government can be used to silence conservative Americans.
“This is a travesty of Justice to see an administration weaponize the law against average Americans for exercising basic Constitutional rights,” Joeylynn Mesaros, one of the defendants, wrote on a website that she and her husband created to raise awareness about the lawsuit and raise money for legal fees.
Jury selection begins Friday in the civil trial, where the participants of the Trump Train could be on the hook for punitive and compensatory damages as well as attorneys fees. But if Davis and the other plaintiffs are successful, it could also bolster ways the Klan Act might be used to fight back against alleged acts of political intimidation and violence.
https://www.sacurrent.com/news/after-four-years-wendy-davis-lawsuit-against-trump-train-goes-to-trial-35504275