Donald Trump Battered by Yet Another Legal Blow: Scandal-Plagued Former Prez Sued for Defamation by Central Park Five — Adding to Tangled Web Of Cases He's Already Facing
The Exonerated Five have sued Donald Trump for defamation over statements he made at the second presidential debate.
Oct. 21 2024, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
The exonerated members of the "Central Park Five" have added to Donald Trump's mounting legal woes.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise have sued the ex-president for defamation over statements he made about the 1989 case during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
McCray, Richardson, Salaam, Santana and Wise alleged in their lawsuit Trump acted with "reckless disregard" for the truth when he claimed they pleaded guilty to crime connected to the assault and rape of Central Park jogger and "badly hurt a person, killed a person" as teenagers.
The five men were exonerated of the 1989 assault and rape of a Central Park jogger in 2002.
The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia on Monday, October 21.
Attorneys for the five men wrote: "Defendant Trump's statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects.
"Plaintiffs never pled guilty to the Central Park assaults. Plaintiffs all pled not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration, as well as after they were released from prison.
"None of the victims of the Central Park assaults were killed."
The case amplified debate about racism in the justice system.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung slammed the filing as "just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit" which he claimed was devised to "distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign", according to CNN.
The men, who are now collectively known as the Exonerated 5, are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Their lawsuit additionally stated the ex-president's statements caused them to "suffer severe emotional distress".
The men recently spoke at the 2024 DNC – have a long history with Trump.
As teenagers, they were charged with the 1989 assault of white jogger Trisha Meili. The boys were pressured by authorities into giving false confessions in the case.
At the time, Trump was a high-profiled figure in NYC's real estate and socialite scene. He made headlines when he took out a full-page ad in city newspapers calling for the teenagers' execution over the murder.
His ad read: "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!"
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In 1989, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the then-teenagers execution.
Tragically, the teenagers were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to prison.
In 2002, they were exonerated when DNA evidence linked another person to the case. Twelve years later they sued the city and the case was settled in 2014 for $41million, which Trump called a "disgrace" in an op-ed he wrote for the New York Daily News.
Their case further amplified discussions of systemic racism and the unjust prosecution of Black and latino men across the country.
At the presidential debate in September, Harris called out Trump for his actions in the wake of the murder.
The five men are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
She said: "Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution."
Trump has repeatedly brought up the case and denounced their exoneration.
In 2016, then-candidate Trump defended taking out the ad and claimed "they admitted they were guilty".
The ex-president's ad was included as an exhibit in their lawsuit.
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