A pro-Donald Trump biker gang’s physical handling of protesters at a weekend rally could add to the president’s legal woes, with one attendee considering a fresh lawsuit as protesters already suing over violence at rallies last year plan to cite the recent events as proof of an ongoing pattern.

Members of a group called Bikers for Trump accosted multiple people at a Saturday night rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, sometimes using their bodies to push or physically detain them until police arrived, after Trump yelled “get him out of here” at one protester waving a Russian flag.


The skirmishes underscored the unique challenges surrounding a president who continues holding campaign-style rallies nearly six months after his election, eliciting equally charged fervor among his supporters and critics — and who hasn’t disavowed the violence that characterized much of his campaign.

The scene at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center on Saturday in some ways recalled a series of tense rallies during the bitter GOP primary at which Trump supporters repeatedly clashed with protesters, occasionally with Trump’s encouragement, including at a February 2016 rally where the then-candidate suggested his fans should “knock the crap out of ‘em” and then offered to pay any resulting legal fees.

“When he sees that the crowd is riled up and he says these types of things, he’s sending a message to his supporters,” said Richard A. Rice, a lawyer representing two protesters who are suing the Trump campaign, including an African-American man who alleges he was punched, kicked and called racial slurs by Trump supporters at a November 2015 Trump rally in Birmingham, Alabama. During that encounter, Trump similarly yelled “get him the hell out of here!”

Rice said the message directed at his client and the protester in Harrisburg on Saturday was the same: “He wants to use violence as a tool to suppress political dissent.”

The lawsuit from Rice’s clients, which is awaiting a judge’s ruling on motions to dismiss by the Trump campaign and the convention center that hosted the rally, is one of two moving through the federal courts accusing Trump of inciting violence by his supporters against protesters. “If we get past this motion-to-dismiss stage, I would certainly cite (the incidents at the Harrisburg rally) to show that it’s an ongoing pattern,” said Rice.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did the Trump reelection campaign, which hosted the Harrisburg rally.

The responses from Trump supporters to his calls to remove protesters are a source of concern for the local police tasked with keeping the peace at rallies, as well as Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the president.

“There is never a situation where we want anyone to take matters of law enforcement into their own hands,” said Troy Thompson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Capitol Police, the agency that had primary responsibility for maintaining order at Saturday’s rally. “We had enough officers on the scene to handle whatever may have occurred, and it’s best to allow the officers to do their jobs.”

Thompson said no arrests or citations were issued to Trump supporters, and that there were only two arrests of protesters, both for disorderly conduct. He said he “wasn’t aware of anyone being detained or restrained” by Trump voters.

But videos and photos from the event show the bikers intervening in at least one instance, while a POLITICO reporter who covered the rally witnessed other incidents involving the bikers.

“The bikers are a great example of members of the crowd using Trump’s words as a call to action. In some instances, they feel like they are instructed to do so, and further feel like their actions to suppress a protest somehow indemnifies their actions,” said a law enforcement source who is in contact with Trump’s Secret Service detail. “Their actions are wrong, and oftentimes cause more harm than good.”

The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment. Chris Cox, the founder of Bikers for Trump, declined to comment.

One of the protesters arrested on Saturday, a liberal activist named Ryan Clayton, was the one who drew the president’s ire by unfurling the Russian flag. As he waved it, he yelled that Trump was a traitor and a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Clayton said the bikers and other Trump supporters shoved him.

Local police arrived quickly and threw him to the ground. Clayton nevertheless commended their handling of the situation and said he was thankful they reached him when they did, “because it was getting kind of hairy.”

Even as he was being escorted out of the arena by law enforcement — which is when Trump bellowed “get him out of here” — Clayton said a member of Bikers for Trump continued “pushing me with his body as I was walking out. He was up against my back, literally breathing down my neck, in some kind of macho man way of exerting his monkey dominance.”

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In another instance, an Indian-American man named Neil Makhija was cornered and shoved by the bikers, and taunted by other rally-goers who yelled “get him out.”

“I was trying to find the police because I wanted [the bikers] to be taken away, not me,” said Makhija, a Harvard Law School graduate who is active in Democratic politics in northeastern Pennsylvania. He attended a protest across the street before the rally but said he did not protest inside the rally.

When an officer finally arrived on the scene where the bikers had cornered Makhija, the officer told Makhija he could stay in the arena but suggested that he might want to avoid wading back into the crowd. “It was like, ‘This crowd was so uncontrollable that we can’t have you here,’ which goes against everything we believe in in a democratic society. It’s basically saying don’t participate because the mob could get violent.”

Makhija, who on Twitter called Bikers for Trump “professional thugs,” said he is considering suing, explaining: “I’m going to consult people who are well versed in this area of law.”

One member of Bikers for Trump who said he was involved in the altercation with Makhija denied any wrongdoing. “We stepped up to help out our brothers, our sisters,” said Dennis Egbert. “At no time will you find my DNA on him or any other individual.”

And Egbert suggested the bikers’ rally security work has the approval of both Trump and the Secret Service. “I’ve talked to more Secret Service people around Donald Trump than you’ll ever see,” he said.

Trump’s campaign staff last year did allow the group’s members to patrol Trump’s rallies, where they routinely could be seen conferring with members of Trump’s private security team about efforts to identify and remove protesters and suspected protesters.

At Saturday’s rally, Cox and other members of the group were given seats on the riser directly behind Trump — prime spots from which they could be seen in telecasts of the president’s rally speech.

Egbert was among a handful of veterans who joined Trump last week at the Department of Veterans Affairs for the signing of an executive order related to whistleblower protection.

He said that Trump — who has promoted the biker group on his Twitter account, touting their presence at his inauguration — has personally thanked him for his rally security work on three separate occasions. “If I was doing anything wrong, he would’ve told me,” Egbert said.

Yet, Steve Amitay, executive director of the National Association of Security Companies, said that the bikers’ behavior could lead to assault charges against them, as well as potential legal liability for the Trump campaign. “There could be some degree of negligence on the campaign’s part if they know that these bikers for Trump folks are assaulting people at the rally who aren’t posing any physical harm to anyone else.”

A federal judge late last month ruled that Trump’s calls of “get ’em out of here!” may have constituted “incitement to riot” at a March 2016 rally in Louisville, Kentucky, at which three protesters allege in a lawsuit they were assaulted by Trump supporters.

Henry Brousseau — one of the three protesters suing Trump, his campaign and the supporters who allegedly assaulted the protesters in Louisville — said the Harrisburg case fits a pattern. “I think it’s clear that it’s a call to action for his supporters,” he said.

Trump’s attorneys contended that Trump was calling on his security, not his supporters, to remove the protesters in Louisville. They also argued that Trump had a right to remove protesters because they were infringing on his freedom of speech, and that Trump’s calls to remove protesters are protected by the First Amendment and should not be considered incitement.

Lee Rowland, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who focuses on First Amendment issues, agreed with Trump’s First Amendment claim in the Louisville case, arguing: “Trump has free speech rights, too.”

She said that same reasoning applies to the Harrisburg rally as well, adding that “Trump’s decision to use his bully pulpit to actually bully protesters and to rile up his crowds against them is morally despicable, but it is constitutionally protected.”

Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.