- On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit from the Central Park Five may proceed against President Donald Trump. The lawsuit stems from Trump’s comments made about the five men, who were wrongly convicted of rape in 1989, during a September 2024 presidential debate against former Vice President Kamala Harris.
- Trump falsely stated during the debate that the men killed the woman in Central Park and pleaded guilty to the crime.
- The woman survived her injuries, and new DNA evidence and a confession from another person exonerated the men of the crime in 2002.
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A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of making false statements about five Black and Latino men wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a woman in New York City’s Central Park.
What did the judge rule?
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled on Thursday, April 10, the men’s case can proceed as they have shown enough evidence to this point to continue their lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Trump of defaming them during the 2024 presidential debate aired by ABC News, when he mentioned the “Central Park Five” as a past issue former Vice President Kamala Harris may use against him.
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What did Trump say?
During the debate, Trump claimed that the Central Park Five had pleaded guilty to the crimes.
“They come up with these things, like what she just said, going back many, many years. When a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted, they said, they pled guilty,” Trump said. “And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person, ultimately, and if they pled guilty, then they pled we’re not guilty.”
Beetlestone ruled that those debate stage comments “can be ‘objectively determined’ to be false” and Trump’s “statement must be construed as one of fact, not opinion.”
The lawsuit, filed in October 2024, seeks an undisclosed amount of damages for reputational and emotional harm to the plaintiffs.
The Trump administration declined to comment on the ruling. Trump, however, has previously denied any wrongdoing.
When were the men cleared of the crime?
Authorities exonerated the men, dubbed the “Central Park Five,” in 2002 after new DNA evidence emerged and another person confessed to the crime.
Which claims are in question?
Trump incorrectly claimed during the September 2024 presidential debate that the men killed a woman jogging in Central Park and later pleaded guilty.
The woman, however, survived, and the plaintiff’s attorneys said the men gave false confessions that they later recanted and never pleaded guilty.
The lawsuit accuses Trump of making “demonstrably false” statements about the men and putting them in “a harmful false light.”
Trump has faced criticism in the past over his comments on the Central Park Five as the case gained national prominence.
