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

The members of “Central Park Five” are submitted Former President Donald Trump is being sued for defamation over comments he made about the incident during a debate in Philadelphia.

The infamous case involved the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in New York City in 1989, for which five teenagers were charged and convicted. At first some confessed However, he later recanted and said he had been coerced into making the confession. The five served time in prison until someone else confessed to the crime and confirmed it through DNA testing. Police said five people 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 used the incident during the debate to accuse Trump of racism, since two weeks after the assault she had called for the restoration of the death penalty in a full-page newspaper ad. And so.

Trump defended himself against the allegations, but the lawsuit alleges that Trump spoke in a defamatory manner and made several false claims.

“They go back years and come up with things like what she just said. At the time, a lot of people, including the mayor, [Michael] Bloomberg agreed with me about the Central Park Five. They admitted it, they said they pled guilty,” Trump said during the debate.

“And I said, 'If they plead guilty, that means they seriously hurt a person and ultimately killed a person,'” he added. “And if they plead guilty, we say, 'We're innocent.'”

The complaint notes that none of the five actually entered a guilty plea and that no one was killed in the incident. The complaint also says that the mayor at the time, not Bloomberg, was Ed Koch, who disagreed with Trump on the issue.

“Defendant Trump's conduct during the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and was designed to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs,” the complaint states. “Plaintiffs seek judgment against defendant Donald J. Trump for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and costs.”

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

“This is yet another frivolous election interference lawsuit filed by desperate left-wing activists,” the statement read.

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