Central Park Five sue Trump for defamation

Five middle-aged men who, as teenagers, faced charges of raping and assaulting individuals in Central Park, sued former President Donald Trump on Monday. The men allege that last month in a presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said the men murdered an individual in Central Park and that they pleaded guilty to doing so. The men argued in their filing on Monday that Trump either knew or should have known his words to be false when he said them.

What about Trump’s claims were allegedly false? The men only faced charges of attempted murder, rape, sodomy, assault, robbery, sexual abuse and riot, according to their lawsuit. They did not face murder charges, and no one died as a result of their alleged activities, the lawsuit argued.

During their interrogations, police officers either coerced confessions out of the boys or testified later that they had confessed to the crimes when in reality they had not, according to the filing. At trial, all of the boys pleaded not guilty. Even so, the jury members in their trials still found them guilty. Years later, New York prosecutors asked a judge to vacate their convictions after another man confessed to the crime, claiming to have been the sole perpetrator. The man’s DNA was linked to the scene and investigators said he knew case facts that only the perpetrator could have been aware of.

What has Trump said in response to the lawsuit? The lawsuit was a frivolous attempt by left-wing activists to distract from the Democratic party’s policy failures, said Trump Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. Vice President Kamala Harris was now resorting to desperate measures because Trump was dominating in the lead-up election, Cheung added.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson has sued CNN for defamation following a report about alleged wrongdoing.

Also read Carolina Lumetta's report in The Stew diving further into allegations against Robinson and the position they put Republicans in.