Central Park 5 file defamation lawsuit against Trump over his comments at debate

The members of the “Central Park Five” have filed a defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump over comments he made about the case during his debate in Philadelphia.

The infamous case involved the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in New York City in 1989, and five teenagers were charged and convicted for the crime. Some initially confessed but later recanted and said they had been coerced into confessing. The five served time in prison until someone else confessed to the crime and was confirmed through DNA evidence. Police argued that the five were still involved, but city officials released them.

‘This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists.’

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tried to use the case during the debate to accuse Trump of racism because he had called for the death penalty to be brought back in a full-page newspaper ad two weeks after the brutal attack.

Trump defended himself against the claims, but the lawsuit alleges he did so in a defamatory manner and made several false claims.

“They come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people, including Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said, they pled guilty,” said Trump during the debate.

“And I said, ‘Well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately,'” he added. “And if they pled guilty — then they pled, ‘We’re not guilty.'”

The lawsuit points out that none of the five had actually entered guilty pleas and no one in the case had been killed. Also the mayor at the time was not Bloomberg but Ed Koch, who disagreed with Trump about the case, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendant Trump’s conduct at the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and it was intended to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs,” read the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs demand judgment against Defendant Donald J. Trump for compensatory damages, for punitive damages and for costs.”

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign minimized the lawsuit in a statement to ABC News.

“This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists,” read the statement.

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