AUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — A jury has dismissed all claims against five participants in a 2020 protest of a Biden-Harris campaign bus, determining they did not attempt to block or otherwise intimidate anyone on the bus.
The San Antonio Express News reports that the case stems from a “Trump Train” of the former president’s supporters following the Democrat bus in dozens of vehicles to protest campaign stops. Video appeared to show pro-Trump vehicles surrounding the bus while on the road.
Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, Biden 2020 staffer David Gins, and bus driver Timothy Holloway filed a lawsuit against the activists, accusing them of attempting to box their bus in and drive dangerously close for intimidation purposes in violation of the federal Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
The defendants – Dolores Park, Steve Ceh, Randi Ceh, Robert Mesaros, Joeylynn Mesaros, and Eliazar Cisneros – denied they were driving dangerously or attempting to threaten or intimidate anyone.
The Thomas More Law Center, which represented Dolores Park, reports that five of the six defendants have been cleared of any wrongdoing. The sole exception was Cisneros, whom the jury ruled against on one count, for which he must pay Holloway $40,000 according to the BBC. Cisneros intends to appeal the verdict.
The pro-Trump plaintiffs’ “highly paid traffic expert indicated, after examining 53 videos provided to him by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, he did not see Dolores Park’s vehicle directly in front of the Biden-Harris bus, abruptly slowing down to slow down the movement of the bus, directly behind the rear of the bus, or driving alongside the bus except when passing to leave the expressway at exit 215, a long distance from the Biden-Harris bus and its final destination, Austin,” Thomas More notes.
“This was an incredible team effort,” said Thomas More president and chief counsel Richard Thompson. “We were bombarded with pre-trial motions and had to review hundreds of thousands of files before our move to Austin for the actual trial. And not only did the three of us have to move with all our relevant files, we also had to call on our staff in Ann Arbor for logistical support.”
Thomas More maintains that the case was ultimately an attack on free speech, by trying to “deter anyone from voicing public opposition to the Biden-Harris presidential campaign in 2024” through crushing damages.