On Thursday (March 30), a New York grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump over an alleged $130,000 “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. As reported by The Associated Press, Trump’s attorneys, Susan Cecheles and Joe Tacopina, stood firm in the belief that their client is innocent. “He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court,” they said in a joint statement.
As expected, many are proclaiming the news as justice — including a member of The Exonerated Five. Taking to social media, Dr. Yusef Salaam made his feelings about Trump’s new predicament clear.
“For those asking about my statement on the indictment of Donald Trump — who never said sorry for calling for my execution — here it is… Karma.”
Along with Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Kevin Richardson, Salaam was wrongfully convicted of a gang rape that took place in NYC’s Central Park in 1989. At that time, Trump bought full-page advertisements in local newspapers calling for the death penalty. While the ads did not explicitly name the accused, it was widely assumed to be a response to the Central Park attack. In 2001, Matias Reyes confessed to the crime, which led to a vacatur of prior convictions for Salaam and the rest of The Exonerated Five the following year. Even after the group found vindication, Trump refused to apologize for his actions during that period. “You have people on both sides of that,” he said at the White House during his presidency in 2019. “They admitted their guilt.”
As for Trump’s legal woes, Tacopina stated that it’s “likely” that the disgraced president will turn himself in to authorities on Tuesday (April 4). “We’re working out those logistics right now,” the lawyer explained to NBC’s “Today” on Friday (March 31). “He’s not gonna hole up in Mar-a-Lago.”