Texas Trump Train defendants’ free speech rights upheld as jury clears them of causing ‘emotional damage’ to passengers of 2020 Biden-Harris campaign bus

A Texas federal jury on Tuesday cleared nearly all Trump Train defendants in a 2020 case that saw a convoy of Trump supporters driving alongside a Biden-Harris campaign bus. The supporters had been accused of voter intimidation and trying to run the bus off the road and the plaintiffs in the case accused the defendants of causing them emotional distress. 

Five of the six defendants were cleared in the lawsuit by the jury. One man, Eliazar Cisneros, whose truck bumped into a white SUV, was ordered to pay the bus driver $10,000 and $30,000 in punitive damages. No criminal charges were filed against the defendants.

Joeylynn Mesaros and Steve and Randi Ceh told Fox News that the crash was minor and the bus and Biden-Harris campaign SUV had been swerving in and out of traffic. The group said the largely uneventful incident had been blown out of proportion. Three of the plaintiffs in the case alleged that the incident caused them emotional distress, anxiety, depression, or insomnia, per the Texas Tribune. 

"Through the lawsuit, we did identify there were maybe one or two vehicles that were driving in a way that we wouldn't have driven," Mesaros said. "I think at worst, it's maybe a traffic citation, not anything major or extreme, certainly not a conspiracy under the Ku Klux Klan law to intimidate voters. But those people weren't sued, it was just intentionally us [and] I think that we were targeted as what they perceived maybe to be easy targets, but they couldn't have imagined that God would sustain us in this fight and we would prevail."

The driver, former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis, a campaign volunteer, and a staffer sued the six defendants, accusing them of assault and political intimidation tactics as well as violating state law and the federal Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The act, which aims to stop political violence and intimidation tactics, was enacted by Congress following the Civil War.

During the trial, the driver of the campaign bus told jurors that he had feared for his life and felt "under attack" when the convoy surrounded the bus. He claimed that the actions of the group forced him to slow the bus to 15mph on the highway. Davis testified that she had felt she was being "taken hostage in a way."

Cisneros’ attorneys have said that their client will appeal the decision. He denied driving recklessly and argued that it was the campaign staff member in the white SUV, not himself, that caused the collision, which resulted in no injuries. According to Fox News, video leading up to the incident had shown the SUV repeatedly driving in between lanes on the highway.

"It was very friendly. I actually have tons of video of friendly encounters where we're waving on the side of the road, smiling, the bus is just driving, and the trucks are driving behind it," Mesaros said of the day.

The Cehs said they were pulled into the lawsuit over a year and a half after it was filed. They ran a Facebook page that helped organize Trump parades in the New Braunfels area. They said they had known the bus was traveling that day, but were on their way back from work when they came across it.

Randi Ceh said she was painted as "mission control" by the prosecution for organizing the event because she posted about the bus in the Facebook group ahead of time.

Mesaros said her family owes around $75,000 in legal fees, which they intend to sue to recoup. She likened the treatment of the defendants to that of Donald Trump, who has seen multiple high-profile legal cases against him both at the state and local level as well as the federal level.

"We’re getting the same treatment that President Trump does. We've got the gag order, we have the unfair jurisdiction, the biased Obama-appointed judge. We've got the motions in limine that prevent us from speaking the whole truth. They're not allowing us to reference the Constitution, they're watering down the definition of free speech," Mesaros said. "So by the time the jury gets its instructions, it's such a rigged sham trial. It's a complete joke and a mockery of the judicial system to leverage for their own political gain."

Speaking with War Room, Mesaros said the decision was a "monumental win for free speech rights for every American."

"Myself and five other Texans were sued in federal court under the Ku Klux Klan law for flying Trump flags next to the Biden bus in 2020. For four long years, we've been abused by the same lawfare that's happening to Trump as average Americans, and so free speech went on trial before a jury earlier this month. We were in trial for two and a half weeks, where a jury trial found that we were not guilty and not liable for giving the occupants of the bus, which include White House officials, Democrat politicians, and Biden-Harris campaign staffers, emotional damage. That is what they hauled us into court for: emotional damage. The jury found us not guilty in federal court, which sets a huge precedent for free speech rights moving forward in the 2024 election."