Five men wrongfully convicted in the “Central Park Five” case sued former President Trump for defamation Monday over comments he made during the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
Why it matters: Trump has falsely maintained for decades the five men were guilty despite their exoneration, and during the debate he claimed the men had pled guilty to raping and assaulting a jogger and that they killed the victim, none of which was correct.
- “Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects,” the lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia federal court, says.
Catch up quick: Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise were convicted as teenagers and sentenced to prison terms between six and 13 years over the 1989 attack.
- Trump bought full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the five teenagers shortly after their arrests.
- In 2002, the five men were exonerated of the crime when DNA linked another person to the attack. The group sued New York City in 2003 for racial discrimination, emotional distress and malicious prosecution and settled the case in 2014 for $41 million.
- Salaam, now a New York City Council Member, said in a 2016 interview with The Guardian that Trump was the “firestarter” in the public backlash against them.
Zoom out: The lawsuit states that Trump’s comments on Sept. 10 are part of a pattern of “wrongful conduct” by the former president against the five men.
- The filing lists several instances where the former president commented about the men, including tweets from 2013 and a 2014 editorial published by the New York Daily News where he called the settlement between the city and the men a “disgrace.”
- “These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels,” Trump wrote.
- The lawsuit states that Trump has made “his false and defamatory statements with ill will and spite, and with wanton, reckless or willful disregard for their injurious effects on Plaintiffs.”
The five men have requested a jury trial. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
What they’re saying: “This is just another frivolous, Election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in an email statement to Axios.
- The lawyer for the five plaintiffs did not respond to Axios’ request for comment.
