Members of the “Central Park Five” sued former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday over “false and defamatory” statements they allege he made about their 1989 case during a presidential debate last month.
The five men claim in a federal lawsuit that Trump knew he was acting with “reckless disregard” for the truth when he said during the September debate with U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris that they pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the beating and raping of a woman in New York City, and that the five teenagers “badly hurt a person, killed a person” in the attack.
“Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects,” attorneys for the men, now all in their 50s, wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia. “Plaintiffs never pled guilty to the Central Park assaults. Plaintiffs all pled not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout …