defendants prepared for what they call, quote, the battle of charlottesville. it started as a racist protest. you can hear them chanting there, ended, of course, in deadly violence. cnn s brian todd has more on this case. reporter: laura and christine, thursday was an exhaustive day of closing arguments in this civil trial. lawyers for the plaintiffs, nine people who were injured during the unite the right rally in charlottesville in august of 2017, argued that the defendants white supremacists conspired to commit racial violence on that weekend. the plaintiffs lawyers saying that these defendants used private communications to discuss the possibility of violence, and even to discuss whether it was legal to drive a vehicle into a crowd of protesters which is, of course, what we know did occur that weekend when james fields drove his car into a crowd of protesters, killing heather heyer. the defendants, these white supremacists, say that they did not plan this violence and that they