Why are the Central Park Five suing Donald Trump? | Donald Trump news

In 1990, there were five black and Latino teenagers – Kevin Richardson, 14, Raymond Santana, 14, Antron McCray, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, and Korey Wise, 16 – who became known as the Central Park Five , wrongfully Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman, was convicted of assaulting and raping a jogger and was in a coma for 12 days after the incident in April 1989.

Subsequently exonerated, the five – all now in their 50s – are now in the middle of another legal battle: On Monday, the five men filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania against former President Donald Trump, accusing him of “false and defamatory” actions. Statements he made during the September presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is the Republican nominee for the November election, while Harris is the Democratic Party nominee.

It's the latest chapter in a long-running saga involving the Central Park Five (now sometimes known as the “Exonerated Five”) and Trump – who once called for their execution in an infamous series of ads.

So what is the latest lawsuit about, how has the Trump campaign responded, and what is Trump's history with the Central Park Five?

Why are the Central Park Five suing Trump?

At the September debate, Trump said that at the time of the interrogation trial in 1989, the teenagers “admitted – they said they pleaded guilty.” And I said, when they pleaded guilty, they seriously injured and ultimately killed a person .”

However, no one was killed in the 1989 attack. Meili was severely abused and left in a coma. and is still suffering from the long-term effects of the attack, but she survived.

Trump was also wrong in his claim that the Central Park Five had pleaded guilty: They all maintained their innocence throughout the trial, as their lawyers emphasized in their lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Trump's debate comments were “negligent” and made with “reckless disregard for their falsity.”

Four of the Central Park Five said in statements to police during questioning that they were involved in the attack. But many legal experts have accused the interrogators at the time of putting pressure on the five young men and effectively forcing four of them to falsely confess to attacking and raping Meili.

Their sentences ranged from six to thirteen years.

In 2002, the Central Park Five were exonerated after Matias Reyes, a convicted serial rapist already serving a life sentence for unrelated crimes, confessed to Meili's assault.

Reyes' DNA matched evidence collected at the crime scene, prompting Judge Charles J. Tejada of the New York State Supreme Court to grant a motion to vacate the Central Park Five's convictions. In 2014, the five men sued the city of New York in a civil lawsuit. The city agreed to a settlement worth $41 million.

In 2016, the men were awarded an additional $3.9 million in a settlement by the New York State Court of Claims.

What is Trump's history with the Central Park Five?

The attack on Meili sparked widespread outrage and anger: she was found naked and gagged, her skull so badly fractured that her left eye had slipped out of its socket.

While the media frantically focused on the case, Trump published full-page, 600-word ads with his signature in the New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post and New York Newsday advocating for the reinstatement of the death penalty pronounced.

The ads were titled: “Bring Back the Death Penalty.” Bring Back Our Police!”

The ads said: “I want to hate these highwaymen and murderers. They should be forced to suffer, and if they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as role models so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or act of violence.”

Despite the subsequent overturning of their convictions, Trump has never apologized for these ads.

How did Trump's campaign react to the new lawsuit?

Shanin Specter, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Trump's comments painted them “in a harmful false light and intentionally caused them emotional distress.”

But in a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the lawsuit “just another frivolous election interference lawsuit.” He claimed the lawsuit was aimed at “distracting the American people from Kamala Harris' dangerously liberal agenda and her failed campaign.”

“The frantic efforts of Lyin' Kamala's allies to interfere in the election are coming to nothing and President Trump is dominating as he marches to a historic victory for the American people on November 5th,” Cheung said, referring to the election date.

Could the lawsuit affect Trump's election campaign?

In the most recent presidential debate in September and at the Democratic National Convention in August, Harris and her supporters continued to target Trump over his positions on the Central Park Five.

At the DNC, civil rights activist Al Sharpton brought the Central Park Five on stage to speak out against Trump.

“He spent a small fortune on full-page ads calling for the execution of five innocent young teenagers,” Sharpton said, referring to the Central Park Five.

“Forty-Five wanted us no longer alive,” Yusef Salaam said at the DNC, referring to Trump, the nation’s 45th president. “Today we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed and the DNA proved it. (Trump) still says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He rejects scientific evidence instead of admitting he was wrong.”

In the September debate, Harris criticized Trump for the full-page ad he made in 1989

“Let us remember that this is the same person who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five innocent black and Latino boys, the Central Park Five. “I ran a full-page ad calling for her execution,” Harris said

“I think the American people want more, more than that,” Harris added.

Still, Trump has been polling at record highs among black voters for months — support that appears not to have been dampened by criticism from Harris and her campaign. Harris is also doing worse in the polls among Latinos than previous Democratic Party candidates.