Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump makes comments during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Center for the Performing Arts on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Five people convicted as teenagers in the so-called Central Park Five jogger rape case sued Donald Trump on Monday, saying the Republican presidential candidate accused them of murdering people and pleading guilty.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, cites several statements Trump made about them during a Sept. 10 debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“Defendant Trump falsely stated that the Plaintiff killed individuals and pleaded guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” he said according to the civil.
“The plaintiff never pled guilty to any crime and they were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Furthermore, the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed,” the complaint said.
The plaintiffs in the case are Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise. Salaam is a member of the New York City Council.
The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages, with total damages and punitive damages to be determined in court.
CNBC has reached out to a Trump campaign spokeswoman for comment.
Activist Korey Wise (C) speaks on stage as a representative of the “Central Park Five,” (LR) Activist Kevin Richardson, New York City Councilman Dr. Yusef Salaam, and Activist Raymond Santana, along with Rev. Al Sharpton (2nd- R) is seen during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 22, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
Chip Somodevilla Getty Images
The lawsuit notes that the man, when he was young, was convicted in court of a series of attacks that took place in Central Park in New York City in April 1989. The man was between 14 and 16 years old at the time, and spent several years. prison after conviction.
Less than two weeks after the sexual assault on a jogger in the park in which teenagers were accused, Trump paid for a full-page ad in a New York newspaper that “mentioned the attack in Central Park without specifically identifying the suspect and asked New York City to “(s)end the message loud and clear to those who will kill our citizens and terrorize New York-BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE,” according to noted.
All five men were acquitted in 2002 of claims they raped the jogger based on newly discovered DNA evidence.
They sued New York City a year later for false arrest, malicious prosecution and racially motivated conspiracy. The city settled the suit more than a decade later by agreeing to pay the men $41 million.
Trump was previously held liable in two separate lawsuits for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she publicly alleged that he had raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. A jury after a trial in the case awarded Carroll $88.3 million in damages.
Trump is appealing the verdict in the case, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan.
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