The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were acquitted on Monday have filed a defamation lawsuit against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.
“Defendant Trump falsely stated that Plaintiffs murdered an individual and pleaded guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in a federal complaint.
Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were charged with the 1989 rape and assault of a white jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The five, who are black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleaded not guilty in court and were later convicted after a jury trial. Their convictions were quashed in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.
After the crime, Trump bought a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the teens’ execution. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into a tough-on-crime policy, which preceded his full-throated populist political persona. Since then, dog whistles and openly racist rhetoric have become fixtures in Trump’s public life.
In the September 10 debate, Trump misstated key facts of the case when Harris raised the case.
“They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ‘well, if they pled guilty, they seriously hurt someone and ended up killing a person… And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,’” Trump said.
He seemed to confuse guilty pleas with confessions. No victim has died either.
The now acquitted five, including Salaam, who is now a New York City councilman, campaigned for Harris. Some of them spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, calling out Trump for never apologizing for the newspaper ad.
They have also joined civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton for a get-out-the-vote bus tour.
