A woman has been accused of political intimidation for being part of the convoy. Former President Donald Trump Supporters who surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a busy Texas interstate in 2020 say the incident was an exercise in free speech and was not intended to impede the bus’s progress.
Randi Hsieh and her husband, Steve Hsieh, are among six people sued for crowding Interstate 35 on a bus headed to a campaign event on Oct. 30, 2020.
“We have our first Amendment “We have a right to drive on the highway,” Randy Cheh said Monday, as the trial’s second week began, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “We made a ‘Trump Train’ and it was great.”
Former state senator Wendy Davis (left) and bus driver Tim Holloway (center) arrive at the “Trump Train” trial at the United States Federal Courthouse in downtown Austin, Texas, on September 12, 2024. Davis and other plaintiffs on the Biden-Harris campaign bus that traveled on I-35 in 2020 are suing people on the “Trump Train” for allegedly running them off the road. (via Jay Zahner/American-Statesman/USA TODAY NETWORK Image Credits)
He described the event as “our team versus your team”. political practice and argued that they were not trying to intimidate anyone.
The trial began last week, and the seven-member jury heard arguments from plaintiffs, including former Texas state senator Wendy Davis, who testified that she felt like she was “held hostage in some way” and the bus driver, who said he felt “attacked” and feared for his life.
Davis and the driver, along with a campaign volunteer and a staffer, are suing six Trump supporters who were part of a convoy made up of dozens of pickup trucks and cars adorned with large Trump flags that gathered at the bus stop just days before the 2020 presidential election.
The plaintiffs say Trump supporters are responsible for attacks and political intimidation tactics that violate state law and the federal Enforcement of the Rights of Persons Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law is intended to prevent political violence and intimidation tactics and was enacted by Congress during the Reconstruction era to protect the voting rights of Black men by prohibiting political violence.
The plaintiffs say the group drove recklessly and attempted to run the bus off the road. In one incident captured on video, a “Trump Train” pickup truck and a bus collided. Biden Campaign SUV The bus collided with a vehicle traveling behind it, though no one was injured. The defense has denied reckless driving and argued that a campaign staffer in a white SUV initiated the collision on the highway. Video before the collision shows the SUV repeatedly moving in the middle of the lane.
The suit, filed in 2021, seeks punitive and compensatory damages.
A pickup truck bearing former President Donald Trump’s flag stands on either side of the Biden-Harris campaign bus. (John Hinojosa, via Storyful)
The defendants — which include Hsieh, as well as Robert Mesaros, Joelynn Mesaros, Eliazar Cisneros and Dolores Parks — maintain that they were merely supporting Trump “in a very loud way,” an attorney told The Associated Press. The defense also argued that their clients’ actions were protected speech and that the suit is a concerted effort to “swindle conservatives out of their money.”
On Monday, plaintiffs’ attorney Sam Hall attempted to show that CEH knew the convoy was impeding the bus’s progress, pointing to a post. facebook group Others wrote, “Surrounded” and “They won’t stop! Trump got too much support so they’re going straight to Austin.”
Hall asked Randy Hsieh why he didn’t use his qualifications as a Facebook group admin to remove such posts, to which he cited users’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Hall also pointed to Hsieh’s use of the hashtag “#BlocktheBus” in his posts, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
According to the outlet, Randi Hsieh, of New Braunfels, and her husband created the Facebook page in 2020 after relocating from Las Vegas, where they had previously participated in a “flag run” in which they organized a convoy of vehicles to support then-President Trump’s re-election campaign.
He said he continued the tradition in New Braunfels, where his “Trump Train” grew to include hundreds of vehicles. He said a “Trump Train” on the evening of Oct. 29, the night before the incident with the bus, included about 1,000 vehicles.
“Every week it got bigger and bigger,” he said, according to the outlet.
Hall asked Randy Hsieh if the earlier “Trump Trains” had a goal or “were they organized to prevent something,” but Hsieh retorted, “It sounds like you’re saying something happened, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A former President Donald Trump supporter chases the Biden-Harris campaign bus in a pickup truck in 2020. (John Hinojosa, via Storyful)
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Randy Cheh said she expected the October 30 “Trump Train” to be similar to earlier trains organized by the husband-wife duo and that she did not intend to be part of the convoy and only joined the group briefly as the event occurred while she was returning home from work.
Hall also described via text screenshots how Hsieh had passed on information about the bus’s whereabouts to members of the Facebook group, which he received via a text message chain with other “Trump Train” organizers.
He also presented the post he made in the group, in which he said For the Democrats According to the outlet, he has been described as a “democrat” and a “symbol of evil.”
Steve Hsieh also testified Monday, when Hall showed a video of the defendant at a gathering of Trump supporters in which he said Oct. 30 was a “good day” and referred to people on the bus as “socialists.” He described the Trump trains as consisting of “a lot of prayer, a lot of faith, a family atmosphere,” according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The hearing is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
