The five men wrongfully convicted in the infamous Central Park Five case have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing him of falsely claiming they killed someone and pleaded guilty to the crime. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in Philadelphia, centers on statements Trump made during a debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on September 10.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—argue that Trump’s comments were “demonstrably false.” The lawsuit states, “Defendant Trump falsely stated that Plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false.” It also clarifies that none of the men ever pled guilty to any crime and were fully exonerated in 2002.
The five men, who were teenagers at the time of the original case, were convicted of a series of assaults that occurred in New York City’s Central Park in April 1989, including the attack on a jogger. The men, aged 14 to 16, spent years in prison before newly discovered DNA evidence cleared them of all charges related to the assault.
The lawsuit also points to Trump’s involvement in fueling public outrage back in 1989, when he paid for a full-page ad in New York newspapers just weeks after the assault. In the ad, Trump called for the return of the death penalty and said, “Bring back the death penalty and bring back our police,” which many saw as a direct reference to the Central Park case, even though the ad did not name the suspects specifically.
Yusef Salaam, one of the plaintiffs, now serves as a member of the New York City Council. Despite being exonerated more than two decades ago, the plaintiffs argue that Trump’s recent statements have continued to defame them and damage their reputations.
