Trump Orders Judge To Dismiss Central Park Five Defamation Lawsuit
On Wednesday, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump requested a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of defamation.
The lawsuit stems from statements Trump made during his presidential campaign about five Black and Hispanic men who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park.
Trump’s Lawyers Argue Central Park Five Comments Were Protected Opinion
Donald Trump’s lawyers have argued in a court filing that his remarks about the Central Park Five, a group of men exonerated in a notorious 1989 case, are legally protected under the First Amendment as expressions of opinion.
The Central Park Five—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise—were cleared in 2002 after DNA evidence and a confession from another individual exonerated them of charges related to the brutal assault of a jogger in Central Park.
Despite their exoneration, Trump claimed during a Sept. 10 presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris that the men had killed someone and pleaded guilty—statements that were false.
In their filing, Trump’s attorneys asserted that his comments fall under the protections of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which they said safeguards speech about matters of public concern.
When asked for comment, a lawyer representing Trump at the Dhillon Law Group declined to respond, and a spokesperson for Trump’s transition team did not immediately provide a statement.
However, Trump announced on Monday his intention to nominate Harmeet Dhillon, founder of the Dhillon Law Group, to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
Shanin Specter, the attorney representing the Central Park Five, expressed confidence that Trump’s legal defense would not succeed. “We fully expect his arguments to fail,” Specter stated.
The case continues to draw attention due to its high-profile nature and the longstanding controversy surrounding Trump’s public stance on the exonerated men.
“We are eager to begin the discovery process and proceed to trial,” said attorney Jonathan Specter.
The lawsuit alleges that former President Donald Trump made “demonstrably false” statements that portrayed the plaintiffs in “a harmful false light” and caused them intentional emotional distress.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argue that their clients were coerced into giving false confessions, which they later recanted. Despite this, the men never entered guilty pleas.
Trump has faced widespread criticism for his past remarks about the Central Park Five. Following the brutal assault of a jogger in 1989, he publicly condemned the accused teenagers, going as far as purchasing full-page ads in several major New York newspapers.
In those ads, he called for the reinstatement of the death penalty, sparking outrage and debate that continues to this day.