SAN JOSE — A federal judge Wednesday denied San Jose’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought on behalf of Donald Trump supporters who claim city officers steered them into an angry mob of protesters who attacked and injured them as they left a June campaign rally downtown.

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Trump rally attendees sue San Jose, Mayor Liccardo and police chief “We look forward to pursuing discovery in this case — getting to the bottom of why this situation happened, holding the city liable for what happened to these individuals and ensuring this type of tragedy doesn’t happen again,” said San Francisco attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, who is representing 20 plaintiffs.

The lawsuit, filed in July 2016, claimed San Jose officials allowed Trump supporters to be attacked by directing them to walk through a “violent mob” of protesters as they left a downtown Trump rally on June 2. It alleged negligence and civil rights violations.

Dhillon’s clients have alleged police officers, who wore full riot gear, looked on while Trump supporters were brutally attacked.

“It felt like we were the lamb being led to the slaughterhouse,” said Juan Hernandez, a Trump supporter and Log Cabin Republican who suffered a broken nose. “I went down into a fetal position and the punches were coming in at every angle. The officers weren’t doing anything as the attacks were happening. This should not happen anywhere — no matter who you support, Democrat or Republican — this should not happen.”

The lawsuit names 17 defendants, including individual protesters and police officers.

The suit initially named Mayor Sam Liccardo and Police Chief Eddie Garcia as defendants. But U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s order Wednesday dismissed claims against Garcia, and claims against Liccardo were dropped in November.

The judge found that while Garcia was involved in planning for the political rally, he wasn’t on the ground when the riots happened. Garcia had no comment Wednesday.

Koh, however, allowed the case to continue against the city and a handful of individual police officers who were overseeing the rally. The city tried to claim the police officers are immune from litigation — but Koh denied that request.

San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle said the city will ultimately prevail, pointing to its success in getting claims against Liccardo and Garcia dismissed. He said San Jose will continue to fight allegations against the city and individual officers.

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“The officers didn’t do anything wrong and were trying to maintain some kind of crowd control in a chaotic situation,” Doyle said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, I’m confident we’ll have this case go away.”

Doyle said there “probably” was a plan to direct Trump supporters to exit away from protesters but it was squashed after the Republican billionaire decided to stay and chat with attendees.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Trump hung around after the event to meet with the VIPs,” Doyle said. “And the Secret Service wouldn’t allow anyone in that area. I think we’ll sort that out in deposition.”