'Exonerated Five' file defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- The Central Park Five and Donald Trump have been adversaries for more than three decades. Now, for the first time, we're hearing from the men who’ve filed a civil lawsuit against the president-elect.
It's taken 35 years to file legal action against the person who publicly called for their execution.
A nationally televised presidential debate was the final straw, they said.
The incendiary barbs and bad blood date back decades for Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, two of the Central Park Five. The results of the 2024 presidential election don’t make it any easier, they say.
“He represents the thought process that is in America that has been riding under the surface,” Salaam said.
“He has doubled and quadrupled down, defaming us, using our names,” Santana explained.
This is why the men served the president-elect with a defamation lawsuit at his Mar-a-Lago home last month.
"It’s us being able to say he lied about us, and so many people believed the lies," Salaam said.
It all started in 1989 when Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad calling for the executions of the men accused of raping a Manhattan jogger.
“A bounty placed on our heads,” Salaam recalled.
That fiery rhetoric emerged again during the presidential debate in Philadelphia in September. Trump said, “They plead guilty, they badly hurt, killed a person ultimately.”
None of that is true—the woman survived, and they were exonerated. So, for the first time, Salaam was there to confront Mr. Trump backstage.
Video captured the exchange: "I'm Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five." he shouted.
"Oh, that's very good. You’re on my side," Trump said smiling.
"No, no, no, I'm not on your side!" Salaam fired back.
“He still had the audacity to say, ‘You’re with me, right?’ I couldn’t believe it,” Salaam told PIX11's Anthony DiLorenzo on election night.
“It’s about clearing our names once again,” Santana added.
“It felt good to stand up for myself,” Salaam said.
Now nearing a year as Harlem's city council member, Salaam believes that some of his own constituents aligned behind Trump, partly due to what he calls “politricks” at play.
“You have a master at play, to tell you nothing and get them on your side,” he said.
But Salaam remains optimistic about the future. “Our unity is more powerful than him," he said. "Hate is not the lifeblood of America.”