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'Trump Train' trial: Defendant says convoy using 'first amendment right' during highway clash

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'Trump Train' trial: Defendant says convoy using 'first amendment right' during highway clash

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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.

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“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. 

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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

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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. 

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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

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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.

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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.

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Los Angeles, Ca

About 20 detained after armed suspect call sparks LAPD response in Koreatown

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About 20 detained after armed suspect call sparks LAPD response in Koreatown

About 20 people were detained Saturday during a large police response in Los Angeles’ Koreatown after authorities received reports of an armed man threatening people, officials said. Officers responded to the 3400 block of West 8th Street near Kingsley Drive on reports of an assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles Police […]

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Man found guilty of sex trafficking victim along L.A.’s Figueroa Corridor

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Man found guilty of sex trafficking victim along L.A.’s Figueroa Corridor

A former Riverside County man was found guilty of sex trafficking a female victim and forcing her to engage in commercial sex acts along L.A.’s notorious Figueroa Corridor.

Elias Abdul Shabazz, 34, formerly of Perris, was found guilty by a jury following a five-day trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Prosecutors said Shabazz had led the victim to believe they were in a romantic relationship before he turned physically and sexually violent. He began demanding that the victim engage in commercial sex acts from May to October of 2021, court documents said.

He carried a handgun with him and, on occasion, was accused of using it to pistol-whip the victim. He also fired the gun at her feet while threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.

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At trial, the victim said Shabazz demanded that she meet a daily quota of commercial sex proceeds and that she was terrified of the consequences of not meeting that quota. 

She testified that Shabazz compelled her to work in the notorious Figueroa Corridor in South L.A., a dangerous area known for human trafficking and prostitution.

Shabazz had confiscated her identification card, Social Security card and birth certificate. He constantly monitored her cell phone to stop her from communicating with any friends or family.

“He also introduced her to addictive narcotics and controlled every aspect of her life, including when she ate, slept and showered,” prosecutors said.

In May 2025, Shabazz was arrested and has remained in federal custody. His last known address at the time was in Washington, D.C.

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On June 26, 2026, Shabazz was found guilty of one count of coercing or enticing interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6, where he faces 15 years to life in prison.

“Sex trafficking matters rank among the most tragic cases our office prosecutes,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “This defendant will now face many years in a federal prison cell for his sick, disgusting, and disturbing behavior.”

“Elias Shabazz preyed on a vulnerable victim using physical and sexual violence and cruel psychological coercion to compel commercial sex acts for his own profit,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “There is no place for this type of conduct in civilized society. We deeply respect the victim’s courage to face her trafficker in court. The Criminal Division will continue to bring these cases and try them.”

Anyone with information about human trafficking can report tips to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888

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Los Angeles, Ca

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