US jury acquits five of six defendants

A jury in Texas has acquitted five pro-Trump activists but found one guilty in a civil trial over a 2020 incident in which they surrounded a Joe Biden campaign bus on the highway.

Drivers on the bus had accused the six defendants of violating state laws and a federal law aimed at combating the white racist group Ku Klux Klan.

After a two-week trial, jurors sentenced Eliazar Cisneros to pay $40,000 (£30,000) in damages for conspiring to intimidate the campaign and disrupt its activities.

However, his co-defendants Stephen and Randi Ceh, Joeylynn and Robert Mesaros, and Dolores Park were not found liable.

John Paredes, one of the co-counsels in the case, said the ruling was “particularly significant in today's climate of heightened political tension and sends a strong signal to all Americans that anyone who engages in acts of political intimidation or violence in this upcoming election, or any other election, will be held accountable.”

But even the five acquitted Texans, who had long portrayed the case as politically motivated, welcomed the outcome of the trial.

Co-defendant Mesaros told reporters outside court that she and her husband “felt like caged zoo animals and were mischaracterized and misrepresented, and we're just ready to feel like normal people again.”

Nearly four years ago, the six defendants were part of a so-called “Trump train” – a caravan of supporters of the Republican candidate in their vehicles – that harassed Biden’s campaign bus on Interstate 35.

Video footage of the incident shows about three dozen cars and trucks occupying every lane, weaving through traffic to surround the bus and slow it to walking speed before driver Timothy Holloway throws them off with an abrupt exit.

Mr Holloway and two fellow passengers – former Biden campaign staffer David Gins and former Democratic Senator Wendy Davis – filed suit in 2021 over what they said was an act of political violence.

Three Biden campaign rallies in the area were canceled after the incident, which involved at least one collision. Trump praised those involved in a social media post at the time, declaring: “I LOVE TEXAS!”

Attorneys in the case cited possible violations of Texas assault and civil conspiracy laws, but also invoked the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to “reiterate that threats, intimidation and violence have absolutely no place in American politics.”

Prosecutors have resorted to the long-disused federal law in recent years in a climate of increasing political polarization. Monday's ruling marks the first time in the modern era that a defendant has been held liable.

While the Trump supporters acknowledged participating in the Trump train and numerous similar convoys, they denied planning the event in advance or intending to harm the bus's occupants.

However, the jury was presented with evidence suggesting that Mr Cisneros, a U.S. Navy veteran, had come up with the idea of ​​”escorting” the bus.

The seven-member panel ruled that he must pay $30,000 in damages to the three plaintiffs and an additional $10,000 to the driver, Mr. Holloway.

A lawyer for Mr Cisneros said he intended to appeal.

Last year, two of the original co-defendants in the trial reached a private settlement and publicly apologized.

The city of San Marcos also paid the plaintiffs $175,000 last year over allegations that local police forces failed to provide assistance despite repeated requests for a police escort by calling 911.