The "Central Park Five," a group of Black and Hispanic men who were wrongfully convicted in 1989 for the rape of a white jogger in New York's Central Park, have filed a defamation lawsuit against former US President Donald Trump.
This action comes in response to Trump's statements during a recent presidential debate, where he falsely claimed that the men had "killed a person" and "pleaded guilty."
The five men—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—were exonerated in 2002 after serving between five and 13 years in prison.
Their convictions were overturned following new DNA evidence and a confession from another individual, which cleared them of all charges.
During the September 10th debate with Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump stated, "They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately."
These comments have been labeled as "demonstrably false" by the plaintiffs, who maintain that they never pleaded guilty and were cleared of all wrongdoing.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Philadelphia, seeks unspecified monetary damages for reputational and emotional harm, as well as punitive damages.
A spokesperson for Trump's campaign dismissed the lawsuit as "just another frivolous, election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists." However, Shanin Specter, the lawyer representing the Central Park Five, emphasized that the lawsuit is not politically motivated, stating, "We are seeking redress in a court of law."
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