Central Park Five sue Trump for defamation over debate claims

Donald Trump at the 10 September presidential debate.

Five men wrongly convicted of attacking a jogger in Central Park decades ago have sued Donald Trump, accusing him of making “false and defamatory” statements during a recent presidential debate.

The lawsuit claims Trump defamed the men during the debate in September when he said they confessed and pleaded guilty to crimes they were falsely accused of.

The plaintiffs, known as the Central Park Five - Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise - were teenagers who pleaded not guilty to rape and assault in the 1989 case. They were wrongfully convicted, but exonerated in 2002 after serving years in prison.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, cites several statements Trump made after opponent Kamala Harris attacked him for buying ads that called for the death penalty at a time when the public was consumed by the case.

“They admitted - they said, they pled guilty,” Trump said, after Vice-President Harris criticised him for his past statements about the case. “And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.”

The lawsuit alleges that Trump made the comments “negligently” and “with reckless disregard for their falsity".

The men accuse Trump of omitting “key facts", which rendered "his statements false”.

The men have said their confessions to police were coerced. The victim in the case survived the attack.

The lawsuit notes that Manhattan prosecutors later acknowledged flaws in their case, that they were exonerated in 2002, and that DNA evidence and a confession ultimately pointed to the true perpetrator.

The men's attorney, Shanin Specter, said in a statement Monday that the men “seek to correct the record and clear their names once again”.

Steven Chueng, a Trump spokesperson, responded in a statement shared with the BBC, saying the lawsuit is "just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists to distract the American people".

The Central Park Five case consumed New York City for years, exposing deep fault lines around race, crime, and inequality in the criminal justice system. The men's exoneration raised questions about policing and the work of prosecutors at the time.

The men, who are black and Latino, are now collectively known as the “Exonerated Five”. In 2014, they settled a lawsuit with New York City for $41m.

In 1989, as the case gripped the city’s headlines, Trump infamously took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other regional newspapers calling to “bring back the death penalty.”

Though the ad did not specifically mention the Central Park Five, it ran while the city faced intense debate ignited by the crime.

“I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer, and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” the advertisement stated.

Harris cited the ad during the debate, when she alleged that "this is the same individual (Trump) 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.”

That is when Trump made the series of false statements, the lawsuit says.

Salaam, one of the Central Park Five who is a currently a member of the New York City Council, attended the September presidential debate.

The court documents and a video provided by the plaintiffs show an exchange he had with Trump after the event.

“President Trump, I’m Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five. How are you doing?” he said, according to the lawsuit.

The former president allegedly responded “Ah, you’re on my side then.”

Mr Salaam replied, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”

“Defendant Trump proceeded to wave his hand at Plaintiff Salaam, smile and walk away,” the lawsuit states.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter.

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