Five men, known collectively as the Central Park Five, are suing former President Donald Trump for defamation following his false claims during a recent presidential debate. Trump asserted that the men had pleaded guilty to a brutal rape that occurred 35 years ago, despite the fact that their convictions had been overturned.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that Trump acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth and intended to inflict “severe emotional distress” by stating during the September 10 debate that the men had “killed a person” in the infamous case and admitted their guilt. The five men—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—have consistently denied the crime and were exonerated in 2002 after a serial rapist and murderer confessed, which was corroborated by DNA evidence.
Trump’s controversial remarks were made during a discussion about race relations, in response to Kamala Harris’s reference to his full-page ad in the New York Times from 1989, in which he called for the death penalty amid the public outrage surrounding the case. Trump stated, “They admitted – they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately… Then they pled: ‘We’re not guilty.’”
However, the reality is that all five men were minors at the time of the crime and pleaded not guilty. The attack left victim Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker, severely injured, but she survived. Following their wrongful convictions and imprisonment, the five received a settlement of $41 million in civil court.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, describes Trump’s behavior during the debate as “extreme and outrageous,” emphasizing that the men “never pled guilty to the Central Park assaults” and maintained their innocence throughout their ordeal.
Additionally, the suit underscores that no one was killed during the incident, pointing out that Trump mistakenly referenced Ed Koch as the mayor of New York at the time, when it was actually Koch in office, and not Michael Bloomberg, as Trump claimed.
Attending the debate, Yousef Salaam, now a New York City council member, approached Trump to ask for an apology directed at “the exonerated five.” During their exchange, when Trump asked if Salaam was on his side, he replied, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
This is not the first time Trump has asserted the guilt of the Central Park Five despite their exoneration. In past comments, he referred to the damages awarded to them as “the heist of the century” and has claimed the men admitted their guilt.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign dismissed the lawsuit as “just another frivolous, election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate leftwing activists,” according to ABC News, which aired last month’s debate.
