The Central Park Five, men who were exonerated for the rape and assault of a woman in 1989, sued Donald Trump for continuing to suggest that they are guilty, including at the presidential debate in Philadelphia last month. The group alleged in a federal court defamation lawsuit in Pennsylvania that Trump falsely claimed during his debate against Vice President Harris that the men pleaded guilty after being charged in the case as teenagers, and that they had killed someone. The defendants were cleared of wrongdoing. The victim sustained life-threatening injuries but survived. In 1989, Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad calling for a return of the death penalty in New York, a move widely seen as a reaction to the attack on the jogger, directed at those who had committed the assault, reports the Washington Post.
After a re-investigation of the case and another suspect’s DNA confirmed his involvement, the defendants, who were Black and Latino, were cleared of wrongdoing. They served years in prison. Trump has continued to make public statements implying guilt on the part of the Central Park Five, suggesting that they were responsible for some crimes that occurred in the park, including another brutal assault. The wrongly accused men “suffered harm, including severe emotional distress and reputational damage, as a direct result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements at the [debate], as well as his continuing pattern of extreme and outrageous conduct,” their lawsuit says. Trump lost two defamation lawsuits over the past two years brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll, who also successfully sued him for a long-ago sexual assault. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the new lawsuit was an attempt to interrupt the election, a refrain Trump and his supporters have used in response to other civil and criminal cases against him. New York City reached a settlement with the Central Park Five for $41 million to compensate them for their wrongful prosecution and imprisonment. One group member, Yusef Salaam, is now a member of the New York City Council representing sections of Harlem.
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