The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. With election day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month's presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.
“Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in the federal complaint. Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white woman jogger in New York City's Central Park. The five, who are Black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleading not guilty in court and were later convicted after jury trials.
Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime. After the crime, Trump purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times, calling for the teens to be executed. The jogger case was Trump's first foray into tough-on-crime politics that preluded his full-throated populist political persona.
Since then, dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures .
