Five Black men falsely accused of raping and beating a white jogger in New York City's Central Park in 1989 have sued former President Donald Trump for defamation.
The group known as the "Central Park Five" sued Trump on Monday over his comments about the then-teenagers during last month's presidential debate.
The men, exonerated in 2002 when DNA evidence linked another person to the crime, accused Trump of knowing he was acting with "reckless disregard" for the truth when he said the men pleaded guilty and that they "badly hurt a person, killed a person" in the attack, CNN reported.
The lawsuit said the five men never pleaded guilty and the victim wasn't killed, claiming Trump's comments were made with a "reckless disregard for their falsity," The Hill reported.
The suit claims defamation, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and asks for an unspecified amount of damages.
"Defendant Trump's conduct at the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and it was intended to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs," a Monday court filing said.
"Defendant Trump's statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects," attorneys for the men wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia, CNN reported. "Plaintiffs never pled guilty to the Central Park assaults. Plaintiffs all pled not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration, as well as after they were released from prison.
"None of the victims of the Central Park assaults were killed."
The Trump campaign responded to the filing.
"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' dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign," Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement to Newsmax. "The frantic lawfare efforts by Lyin' Kamala's allies to interfere in the election are going nowhere and President Trump is dominating as he marches to a historic win for the American people on November 5th."
During the debate, after Vice President Kamala Harris brought up the Central Park Five, the ABC News transcript shows Trump saying: "And they come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five.
"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.'"
In January, New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park Five, says he was stopped and pulled over by police without being given an explanation.
Police later said in a statement Salaam was stopped for driving with a dark tint on his vehicle's windows beyond legal limits.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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