Southwest
'Trump Train' trial: Defendant says convoy using 'first amendment right' during highway clash
A woman who is accused of political intimidation for being part of a convoy of former President Donald Trump supporters who surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a busy Texas interstate in 2020 says the incident was an exercise in free speech and was not intended to impede the progress of the bus.
Randi Ceh and her husband, Steve Ceh, are among six people being sued for swarming the bus along Interstate 35 as it made its way to a campaign event on Oct. 30, 2020.
“We used our first amendment right to drive down the highway,” Randi Ceh said Monday, per the San Antonio Express-News, as the second week of the trial got underway. “We did a ‘Trump Train’ and it was cool.”
‘TRUMP TRAIN’ TRIAL KICKS OFF WITH FORMER DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER TESTIFYING SHE FELT LIKE A ‘HOSTAGE’
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 Sept. 12, 2024. Davis and other plaintiffs on a Biden-Harris campaign bus traveling on I-35 in 2020 are suing people on a “Trump Train” for allegedly nearly running them off the road. (Jay Janner/American-Statesman/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
She described the event as an “our team versus your team” political exercise and argued they were not trying to intimidate anyone.
The trial kicked off last week, and the seven-person jury heard from plaintiffs, including former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who testified that she felt like she was being “taken hostage in a way,” and the driver of the bus said he felt “under attack” 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 converged on the bus days before the 2020 presidential election.
The plaintiffs say those Trump supporters are responsible for assault and political intimidation tactics, violating state law and the federal Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law aims to stop political violence and intimidation tactics and was enacted by Congress during the Reconstruction Era to protect the rights of Black men to vote 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 Biden campaign SUV collided while trailing the bus, although nobody was hurt. The defendants have denied driving recklessly and argue that a campaign staff member in the white SUV initiated the collision along the highway. Video leading up to the collision shows the SUV repeatedly driving in between lanes.
The lawsuit, filed in 2021, seeks punitive and compensatory damages.
TRUMP-BIDEN HIGHWAY INCIDENT IN TEXAS MAY HAVE BEEN WHITE SUV’S FAULT, POLICE SAY; MORE INVESTIGATION PLANNED
A pickup truck with former President Donald Trump flags flanks a Biden-Harris campaign bus. (John Hinojosa via Storyful)
The defendants – including the Cehs, as well as Robert Mesaros, Joeylynn Mesaros, Eliazar Cisneros and Dolores Park – say they were merely supporting Trump “in a very loud way,” an attorney said. The defense also argued that their clients’ actions were protected speech and that the trial is a concerted effort to “drain conservatives of their money.”
On Monday, Sam Hall, an attorney for the plaintiffs, attempted to show that Ceh was aware that the convoy was impeding the progress of the bus, pointing to posts on a Facebook group by others writing “SURROUNDED” and “They did not stop! Too much Trump support so they are going straight through to Austin.”
Hall asked Randi Ceh why she did not use her ability as the Facebook group’s administrator to take down such posts, to which she cited users’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Hall also pointed to her using the hashtag “#BlocktheBus” in her posts, per the San Antonio Express-News.
Randi Ceh, of New Braunfels, and her husband created the Facebook page in 2020 after they moved from Las Vegas, where they had previously taken part in “flag runs” in which they organized convoys of vehicles to support then-President Trump’s re-election campaign, according to the outlet.
She said they continued the tradition in New Braunfels, where their “Trump Trains” grew to include hundreds of vehicles, she said. One “Trump Train” on the evening of Oct. 29 – the night before the incident with the bus, including nearly 1,000 vehicles, she said.
“Every week it got bigger and bigger and bigger,” she said, per the outlet.
Hall asked Randi Ceh if prior “Trump Trains” had a target or were “organized to intercept something,” but Ceh shot back, saying, “It sounds like you’re saying something happened, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A former President Donald Trump supporter in a pickup truck tails a Biden-Harris campaign bus in 2020. (John Hinojosa via Storyful)
Randi Ceh said she expected the Oct. 30 “Trump Train” to be like the prior ones the husband-and-wife duo had organized and that she wasn’t even meant to be part of the convoy and only briefly joined the group because it unfolded on her way home from work, per the San Antonio Express-News
Hall, via text screenshots, also described how Ceh had updated members of the Facebook group with information about the whereabouts of the bus which she had received through a text message chain with other “Trump Train” organizers.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS AP
He also produced posts she had made in the group referring to Democrats as “Demoncrats” and being the “epitome of evil,” per the outlet.
Steve Ceh also took the stand on Monday, when Hall showed a video of the defendant at a gathering of Trump supporters in which he referred to Oct. 30 as a “good day” and called the people on the bus “socialists.” He described Trump Trains consisting of “a lot of prayer, a lot of faith, a family atmosphere,” per San Antonio Express-News.
The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Read the full article from Here
Long Beach will hold a pride festival this weekend after the one they originally had scheduled was canceled.
Long Beach city officials said the celebration was nixed after the nonprofit that organizes it, Long Beach Pride, failed to submit the required information for an event permit.
It was supposed to start on Friday and last through Sunday.
“Despite continued collaboration and multiple deadline notices, the City did not receive the required documentation needed to complete safety reviews, inspect critical event infrastructure, such as the stage, electrical systems and tent, and emergency exiting plans to ensure compliance with public safety standards,” the city of Long Beach said in a statement. “With event programming scheduled to begin on May 15 at 5 p.m. with Teen Pride and essential information still outstanding, there is no longer sufficient time to safely permit the festival this year.”
Officials noted that they were working to see if a “shortened event” could be held this weekend, and indeed, an agreement was reached to stage a one-day gathering on Sunday.
Billed as “Canceled? Never Heard of Her!” and emceed by comedian and drag queen Jewels, it will still bring the city’s LGBTQ community together after Sunday morning’s Long Beach Pride Parade, which was not canceled.
“Long Beach Pride weekend is a culmination of celebrations put on by our community, including our many vibrant restaurants, bars and businesses, and that will never change,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a press release issued late Saturday night. “Along with the Pride Parade, we are proud to join the party with this new event that reaffirms what this City has always stood for: that every person belongs here.”
“The festival may have been canceled, but Long Beach drag artists don’t cancel joy,” added Jewels Long Beach.
The one-day “Canceled? Never Heard of Her!” festival will take place at Bixby Park from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. A free event, it will include music by several performers and a drag show.
More information can be found here.
Los Angeles, Ca
L.A. Jewish institution among targets of foiled terrorist attack, U.S. officials say
A Jewish institution in Los Angeles was among the locations targeted in a recently foiled terrorism plot, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced this week.
The thwarted terrorist attacks were the result of the recent arrest of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi national and senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah, U.S. officials said.
“Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a commander for the terrorist organization, Kata’ib Hizballah, faces serious charges for his role in numerous attacks against U.S. interests across the globe, including his efforts to kill on U.S. soil,” Clayton said. “As alleged, for years, Al-Saadi committed himself to furthering the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC, two terrorist organizations dedicated to harming the United States and its allies.”
Al-Saadi recently attempted to carry out attacks in the U.S., officials said, including attacks at Jewish cultural places of interest in New York, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Al-Saadi attempted to disrupt American society through intimidation and violence,” a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office reads. “… Those who engage in or support terrorism against Americans and on U.S. soil should take note: the whole of the federal government is committed to dismantling terrorist organizations and bringing their members to justice.”
In a three-month period, Al-Saadi allegedly directed 18 terrorist attacks throughout Europe, including bombings, arson, and assaults targeting American citizens and points of interest. Prior to his arrest, national security officials say he was planning similar attacks on U.S. soil. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that Al-Saadi “presented a serious threat to our national security.”
The European attacks included the bombing of the Bank of New York Mellon, an American bank, in Amsterdam on March 15. On April 29, two Jewish men, one of whom was a dual U.S.-British citizen, were stabbed and seriously injured in London.
In 2020, Al-Saadi took to social media, calling for others to attack and kill Americans in retribution for the deaths of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, U.S. officials said. In more recent months, Al-Saadi allegedly used social media to encourage the killing of Americans and Jews to further the terrorist goals of Kata’ib Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“In or about February 2026, for example, AL-SAADI posted on one of his social media accounts a message in Arabic, which read in part, ‘Do not abandon the blood of your Imam of the time, oh Shiites of Iraq. Kill everyone who supports America and Israel. Do not leave any of them remaining. Civil and military targets, as well as voices of discord, kill them everywhere.’” U.S. officials said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch confirmed that one of the U.S. targets was a Manhattan synagogue. On April 3, Al-Saadi allegedly spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer whom Al-Saadi believed could carry out attacks in the U.S. That same day, Al-Saadi allegedly texted the undercover officers photographs and maps showing the exact location of a prominent Jewish synagogue in New York City.
Officials have not said what specific locations in L.A. and Arizona were targeted by the terrorist group.
Al-Saadi now faces numerous charges for these crimes in U.S. court. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
The case is under investigation by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the NYPD, the FBI Washington Field Office, Counterterrorism Division, and more than 50 other federal, state, and local agencies. Investigators also received help from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section, the Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A man armed with a knife was shot by L.A. police officers responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call overnight, authorities said.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers with the Hollenbeck Division responded to an apartment complex in the 3000 block of Glenn Avenue in Boyle Heights at 1:45 a.m. Saturday after callers reported a male suspect was armed with a knife and had just assaulted someone in the complex.
Arriving officers found the suspect in front of the residence, but he did not comply with officers’ commands to drop the weapon. He then advanced toward the officers and an officer-involved shooting occurred, LAPD confirmed.
“The suspect was struck by gunfire and remained non-compliant,” the LAPD Public Information Officer said on X early Saturday morning. “Officers deployed a 40mm foam round and ultimately took the suspect into custody.”
Video obtained by KTLA shows the man being loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital; officials said he was transported in stable condition, adding that his knife was recovered at the scene and booked as evidence.
No officers or community members were injured during the incident. The man’s name was not released.
-
Washington, D.C3 minutes agoStorm Team4 Forecast: Near-record heat expected to start off week
-
Cleveland, OH9 minutes agoCleveland Asian Festival shuts down over capacity issues, police say
-
Austin, TX15 minutes ago2 arrested, 3rd suspect sought after series of shootings in Austin, Texas
-
Alabama21 minutes agoAvery Luedke Transferring To Alabama After One Season With Tennessee
-
Alaska27 minutes agoSouthwest Airlines Begins First-Ever Alaska Service at Anchorage
-
Arizona33 minutes agoRoad to the WCWS: Arizona can’t defend the long ball, Duke wins Durham Regional
-
Arkansas39 minutes agoFayetteville architect constructed cutting-edge Fine Arts Center at University of Arkansas, paved modernism’s path | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
-
California45 minutes agoDuck Hunting in an Unlikely Destination: California Sea Ducks – Gun Dog
