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EXONERATED FIVE SUES DONALD TRUMP FOR JOGGER CASE REMARKS MADE AT
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE  
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Terry Tang
October 21, 2024
Amsterdam News
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_ "Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an
individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are
demonstrably false,” the group wrote in federal complaint. _

Rev. Al Shrapton, New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam, and
members of the Exonerated Five spoke at DNC before Vice President
Kamala Harris’s final speech.,

 

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
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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 [[link removed]]. 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 federal complaint.

The men are upset because Trump essentially “defamed them in front
of 67 million people, which has caused them to seek to clear their
names all over again,” co-lead counsel Shanin Specter told The
Associated Press in an email.

Specter had no comment when asked if there were concerns some see the
lawsuit as purely political because of the group’s support for
Harris. “We are seeking redress in the courts,” Specter said.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung decried the suit as “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.”

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
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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
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been fixtures of Trump’s public life.

In the Sept. 10 debate, Trump misstated key facts of the case
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Harris brought up the matter.

“They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ’well, if
they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately
… And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,” Trump said.

He appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions. Also, no
victim died.

The now Exonerated Five, including Salaam who is now a New York City
councilman, have been campaigning for Harris. Some of them spoke at
the Democratic National Convention in August, calling out Trump for
never apologizing for the newspaper ad.

They have also joined civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton for
a get-out-the-vote bus tour
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Prior defamation suits involving Trump have led to sizeable amounts
awarded to the plaintiffs. In January, a jury awarded $83.3 million
to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll
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Trump’s continued social media attacks against her claims he
sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996. In May
2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice her
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issued a $5 million judgement.

_Terry Tang is a reporter for  Associated Press
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_The Amsterdam News has enjoyed significant accomplishments. In
October of 1930, it became the second Black newspaper to be admitted
to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. In 1936, it became the first and
remains the only Black newspaper to be unionized in all departments by
the Newspaper Guild of New York Local 3. While the Amsterdam News is
“The New Black View,” it remains keenly aware and respectful of
the fact that it serves an increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic
community in New York and beyond. Today, the New York Amsterdam News
remains the voice of one of the largest and most influential Black
communities in the country and the world._

* Central Park Five
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* Donald Trump
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