A federal judge declined to toss a defamation lawsuit against President Trump over his remarks last year about five Black and Hispanic men wrongly convicted of a 1989 rape, dubbed the Central Park Five.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone on Thursday ruled the lawsuit, which stems from Trump’s remarks about the men at a 2024 presidential debate, can move forward. She said Trump’s commentary can be “‘objectively determined’ to be false,” as reason for the challenge to continue.
However, she did dismiss a claim contending the president intentionally caused the men emotional distress.
The Central Park Five — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — were teenagers when they were wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape and assault of a white woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park. They spent years in prison before the true culprit confessed, backed by DNA evidence, resulting in their 2002 exoneration.
Trump’s comments came during his Sept. 10 debate against former Vice President Kamala Harris in a segment on race and politics, after Harris noted that Trump in 1989 paid for full-page advertisements in major New York newspapers that advocated for a revival of the death penalty following the incident.
Trump said “they admitted — they said, they pled guilty.”
“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,” he continued.
But, as the lawsuit notes, the men never pleaded guilty and the victim wasn’t killed. They claimed that Trump’s comments were made to tens of millions of Americans who tuned into the debate with a “reckless disregard for their falsity.”
Trump asked the judge to throw out the case because the challengers sought to “recast political rhetoric and debate about criminal justice and public safety as ‘defamation.'” His attorney, Karin Sweigart, argued in court filings the remarks were protected opinions based on fact that “lacked any defamatory sting.”
In a statement, Sweigart called the lawsuit “yet another unfounded and meritless attack” against Trump but deemed the judge’s dismissal of some claims a “victory.”
“We firmly believe the entire case should have been dismissed and will continue fighting to protect the First Amendment rights of not just the President, but all Americans,” she said.
The lawsuit against Trump asks for an unspecified amount of damages. The Central Park Five previously received a settlement of $41 million from New York City after filing a civil rights lawsuit.
Shanin Specter, an attorney for the Central Park Five, said they look forward to “discovery, trial and the ultimate vindication of these five fine men.”
— Updated at 3:59 p.m. EDT
