Trump sued for defamation by exonerated ‘Central Park Five’

By Jeffery C. Mays / The New York Times

NEW YORK — Five Black and Latino men who were wrongly convicted as teenagers and later exonerated in the rape and assault of a jogger in Central Park sued former President Donald Trump in federal court on Monday, saying he defamed them during a nationally televised debate.

The men — Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Antron McCray — became known as the Central Park Five after the 1989 attack, in a case that drew international attention and inflamed racial tensions in New York City. Collectively, they spent decades in prison before being cleared by DNA evidence and another man’s confession.

During the presidential debate in September between Mr. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Ms. Harris noted that Trump, who was then a prominent real estate developer, took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times calling for the death penalty in the case.

She said it demonstrated the way that Trump had long “attempted to use race to divide the American people.”

In response, Trump falsely said that the men had pleaded guilty to the crime and that someone had been killed during the attack.

“They admitted — they said, they pled guilty,” Trump said. “And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person, ultimately.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, where the debate took place, accuses Trump of making “false and defamatory” statements about the case.

Shanin Specter, a lawyer representing the men, noted that their convictions had been overturned, DNA evidence had cleared them and another man had confessed.

The men, who now prefer to be known as the Exonerated Five, received $41 million in 2014 in a civil settlement with New York City.

“He made it appear that they were guilty when in fact it’s been demonstrated that they are not guilty,” Mr. Specter said in an interview. “It is devastating to be accused of these things all over again on national television to an audience of 67 million people.”

Trump’s comments are part of a “continuing pattern” of false statements stretching back decades designed to “make the men suffer,” the lawsuit charges.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, dismissed the lawsuit, claiming that the men were seeking to “interfere” in the election on behalf of Ms. Harris.

“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,” Mr. Cheung said in a statement.

Mr. Salaam, who now represents Harlem as a member of the New York City Council, sued Trump in his personal capacity.

Mr. Specter argued that Trump’s statements displayed “reckless” disregard for the truth by omitting key facts and were knowingly false — the standard of defamation for both public and private figures.

Asked in 2019 why he would not apologize to the men in spite of their exonerations, Trump said: “They admitted their guilt.” The men have said that police officers coerced them into false confessions.

The men have been vocal about the damage they believe Trump has caused them. Four of them spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer and said that Trump’s actions demonstrated that he was not fit to serve as the president of the United States.

“He called us animals,” Mr. Wise said. “He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for our execution.”

Mr. Salaam also recorded a radio ad in support of Ms. Harris that began airing this weekend in two critical battleground states, North Carolina and Georgia, targeting Black voters.

“Expect no justice and fairness under Trump,” Mr. Salaam said in the ad. “In this election, we must again reject Trump’s hate and chaos.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.