Members of the “Central Park Five,” now known as the “Exonerated Five,” have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump over false claims he made about them during last month’s presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
In 1989, Trump ran an ad calling for the return of the death penalty in New York state after five black and Latino teenagers were falsely accused of a brutal attack. And he has continued to spread false claims about them even after they were acquitted. When Harris called him out for this during the debate, Trump falsely claimed that the five had pleaded guilty.
Here’s the quote:
A lot of people… agreed with me about Central Park Five. They admitted, they said, they pleaded guilty. And I said, ‘Well, if they pleaded guilty, they seriously hurt someone – they ended up killing someone.’ And if they pleaded guilty, they pleaded, ‘We are not guilty.’
The lawsuit, which calls for a trial to determine damages, points out several inaccuracies in Trump’s comments — for example, none of the teens pleaded guilty before being wrongly convicted, and the crime victim died not. (A Trump campaign spokesman dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous.”)
New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam – one of the five acquitted – sat with reporters in the spin room after the debate and confronted the former president. Judging by Trump’s quick departure from the meeting, I don’t think he wanted the smoke. After all, this is someone who apparently resists face-to-face tensions and saves his most pointed attacks for social media posts.
Four members of the Exonerated Five starred in a recent ad for the Harris campaign and also appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention. Their stories are a reminder of the threat of equal justice under the law if Trump returns to the White House. They are proof that as long as someone is considered criminal in Trump’s eyes — facts be damned — there is virtually nothing they can do to clear their name.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
