As reported by Forbes, the Exonerated Central Park Five filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump on Monday (Oct. 21). In the shared filing, the group took the Republican presidential nominee to task over false claims made about their highly publicized 1989 criminal case during his September debate with Kamala Harris.
“At the Sept. 10, 2024 presidential debate, defendant Trump falsely stated that [the] plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime,” it read. “These statements are demonstrably false. [The] plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. [Furthermore], the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed.”
REVOLT previously covered how Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam spent several years in prison after a white jogger was raped and assaulted in NYC’s Central Park in 1989. Their sentences were overturned in 2002 after another man, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crimes. When the case initially became public, Trump bought full-page advertisements in the city’s major newspapers calling for the death penalty. While he didn't specifically name anyone, the ads were considered a catalyst that swayed the public into believing the five teenagers were guilty of the crimes. Even after the Black and Latino men were cleared of the accusations, Trump continued to make statements to the contrary, including in a 2014 opinion piece for the New York Daily News.
Following his aforementioned debate against Vice President Harris, the embattled politician came face-to-face with Salaam in a spin room. After several reporters asked Trump what he would say to the Exonerated Five member, he pointed in Salaam's direction and bizarrely stated, “That’s good, you’re on my side!” The Independent revealed that Salaam laughed with the media before yelling back, “No, no, I’m not on your side!”