Central Park Five sue Donald Trump for defamation

Trump falsely claimed during presidential debate the five men had murdered and pleaded guilty to the notorious New York 1989 rape case

Donald Trump is being sued by the “Central Park Five” over his recent comments about the notorious New York 1989 rape case.
The five men, who were falsely convicted in one of the most widely publicised trials of the decade, accused the Republican candidate of making “false and defamatory” comments about them during his debate with Kamala Harris last month.
Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise were convicted as teenagers of the rape and brutal assault of a female jogger in Central Park.
The five black and Hispanic young men spent years behind bars before being exonerated in 2002 after DNA evidence linked a serial rapist to the attack. They received $41 million in a 2014 settlement with New York City.
Their lawsuit against Trump centres on his comments about the case during his head-to-head with Ms Harris on Sep 10 in Philadelphia.
Trump falsely claimed during the primetime TV debate that the five men had murdered the victim and pleaded guilty to the attack at trial.
“They admitted – they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately,” he said.
“And if they pled guilty – then they pled we’re not guilty.”
In their lawsuit, the five men said Trump’s statements “are demonstrably false”.
“Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing,” their filing stated.
The case of the teenagers who were dubbed the “Central Park Five” came at a time of heightened racial tensions and while New York was in the grip of a crime epidemic.
It was later heavily scrutinised after the teenagers claimed they were coerced into making false, taped confessions after hours of interrogation. They retracted them within weeks.
The five men’s lawsuit also highlighted Trump’s intervention in the case, 11 days after the attack.
Trump was a prominent real estate mogul in his home city at the time and took out full-page advertisements in four New York newspapers demanding the return of the death penalty.
Ms Harris attacked Trump over the advert during their debate.
In response, Trump said: “A lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five”, apparently confusing former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg with former New York mayor Ed Koch, who was the mayor at the time.
The “Central Park Five” are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages, arguing the men have “suffered injuries as a result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements.”