Donald Trump: "Central Park Five" sue him – for defamation






Donald Trump has the next court case on his hands: The ex-president made false statements about five wrongly convicted men during a TV debate.

Five men who were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in New York in 1989 have sued US presidential candidate Donald Trump for defamation. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Pennsylvania, accuses the Republican of making “false and defamatory” statements about the men during the September 10 televised debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The men, black and Latino, known as the “Central Park Five” were teenagers when they were wrongly convicted of raping the woman in New York’s Central Park. They were exonerated in 2002 and years later received $41 million in compensation from the city of New York. The woman survived the crime.

The Central Park Five are suing Donald Trump

Trump “falsely claimed that plaintiffs killed a person and pleaded guilty to the crime” during the presidential debate, the lawsuit says. This is demonstrably false. “Plaintiffs never pleaded guilty to a crime and were later cleared of any wrongdoing.”

The lawsuit also recalls that 11 days after the Central Park incident, Trump published a full-page ad in four newspapers calling for the reintroduction of the death penalty in New York. Harris referenced the ad during the debate, accusing the Republican of trying to “divide Americans on issues of race” throughout his career.

Trump responded in the debate that many had agreed on the “Central Park Five” at the time. He then said: “Well, if they plead guilty, they have seriously injured a person and ultimately killed a person.”

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  • Donald Trump

  • slander

  • rape

  • new York

  • Kamala Harris

  • US presidential candidate