The “Central Park Five”, five men who were unfairly imprisoned, recently sued Donald, claiming the former president had defamed them. Trump has attacked the five guys, notably at the September presidential debate, despite the fact that they were exonerated of the crime for which they were duly imprisoned years ago.
In their civil lawsuit against Trump, the men now known as the Exonerated 5—Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Antron Brown (formerly Antron McCray)—alleged that the Republican presidential candidate vilified them during his aired debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on September 10, 2024, in Philadelphia.
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“Defendant Trump made several statements concerning the ‘Central Park Five’ during the debate,” according to the complaint, which was filed in Pennsylvania. The 1989 incident and the five people’s subsequent convictions were misreported in Trump’s statements, which also disregarded their 2002 exoneration following the confession of a different man and the confirmation of the assault by DNA evidence.
The lawsuit specifically details a conversation in which Harris brought up Trump’s prior criticism of the five individuals to the debate audience. Trump reaffirmed his earlier remarks in reaction to Harris’s criticism during the debate; according to the complaint, “Defendant Trump falsely stated that Plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime.”According to the complaint, both of “these statements are demonstrably false.” The defendants were later exonerated of all misconduct and never entered a guilty plea to any crime. Furthermore, no one was killed in the assaults in Central Park.
Trump has been attacking the five men who are currently suing him in public for decades. Trump placed a full-page advertisement in multiple New York newspapers in May 1989, just after the Central Park attack that the five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully accused of committing. The ad urged authorities to “bring back the death penalty and bring back our police to those who would murder our citizens and terrorize New York!”
Over the decades since their incarceration and subsequent exoneration, the five have frequently shared their narratives while also speaking out for others. A representative of a central Harlem district, Yusef Salaam, for example, was elected to the New York City Council in 2023. When Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges, Salaam even appeared in a full-page advertisement criticizing the billionaire. Raymond Santana has advocated for causes including police accountability and is a member of the New York City Justice League. Four of the five recently joined forces to support Harris’ presidential campaign at the Democratic National Convention.
The five are still fighting to clear their identities against those like the former president who won’t believe they are innocent, and that same presidential election has now put Trump back in their path. A significant step in retaliating against their more well-known surviving opponent is the recently filed lawsuit against Trump.
