Exonerated Five files a defamation case against Donald Trump for false remarks

The Central Park Five, who now call themselves the Exonerated Five, have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump accusing him of his remarks at a recent presidential debate.

The lawsuit focuses on the September 10 debate in Pennsylvania, during which Trump said that the five men, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana, pleaded guilty when they were accused in connection with the rape and assault of a woman jogging in Central Park on 19 April 1989, and the victim had died.

He said, "They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty." However, in reality, no one was killed and the men were later proven not guilty.

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The complaint against Trump said that his statements are “demonstrably false”. It added, "Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Further the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed." It also said that the men have "suffered injuries as a result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements."

The five, who now are aged 50, were teenagers when they were accused of the rape of a female jogger. They maintained their innocence throughout their trials. They were also charged for robberies in Central Park. They spent several years in prison before they were found innocent in 2002 following the discovery of new DNA evidence linking another man to the attack who was a serial rapist. The recent comments made by Trump have reopened old wounds for the men.

The lawsuit argues that Donald Trump’s remarks were recklessly made and disregarded the truth. Shanin Specter, the lawyer representing the five men, said that Trump defamed the group in front of 67 million people. Here, it is further made clear that the lawsuit has no political motive and is filed to seek justice.

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Donald Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said on Monday, “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.”

The lawyer of the five, Shanin, said, “Unfortunately the civil justice system doesn’t permit us to require Mr. Trump to apologize or retract his statement. The most that we can obtain are monetary damages both to compensate these five men for Mr Trump’s damaging their reputations and for the punishment of Mr Trump for making these statements.”

While he said it would be "helpful" if Trump apologized or retracted his statements, “we are not holding our breath for that.”

(With inputs from agencies )