A lawsuit claiming defamation against President Donald Trump by the Central Park Five will continue.
Philadelphia-based U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled Thursday that the lawsuit brought by five Black and Hispanic men who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in Central Park in New York could continue despite Trump’s efforts to stop the case from moving forward, per a report in Reuters.
The five have accused Trump of defaming them during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Beetlestone dismissed a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise, commonly referred to as the Central Park Five, filed the lawsuit in federal court last October.
The five are seeking unspecified monetary damages for reputational and emotional harms. They are also seeking punitive damages.
Shanin Specter, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said he and his clients “look forward to discovery, trial and the ultimate vindication of these five fine men.”
Karin Sweigart, a lawyer representing Trump in the lawsuit, said “this baseless lawsuit is yet another unfounded and meritless attack against President Trump.”
Sweigart lauded the dismissal of intentional infliction of emotional distress allegation as a win for Trump
The Central Park Five were cleared in 2002 when new DNA evidence came to light and a person confessed.
Trump falsely said during a presidential debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris that the men had killed someone and pleaded guilty, the group’s plaintiffs said in lawsuit read.
Their attorneys said they gave false confessions which they recanted and they never pleaded guilty.
