President Donald Trump has been dealt a crushing blow in the Pennsylvania U.S. District Court after a judge ruled that a a defamation lawsuit filed against him by members of the so-called Central Park Five, can move forward.
Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise, the five men wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape of a woman in Central Park, filed the lawsuit against Trump over comments he made about them during his presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in September 2024.
“This is the most divisive presidency in the history of our country. There’s never been anything like it. They’re destroying our country. And they come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five,” said Trump. “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. But this is a person that has to stretch back years, 40, 50 years ago because there’s nothing now.”
In his filing, Trump claimed that his comments were not defamatory. Pennsylvania U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beelestone disagreed with the president’s argument and allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint and advance with their case.
In a high-profile case that captured national attention, the five teenagers were hit with a barrage of severe charges—attempted murder, rape, sodomy, assault, robbery, sexual abuse and inciting a riot.
Despite pleading not guilty, each was convicted and handed long prison sentences. Years later, a breakthrough came after fellow inmate Matias Reyes confessed to the heinous crime. Reyes’ DNA matched evidence from the scene, a fact prosecutors had overlooked or ignored. In 2002, the so-called Central Park Five—(now known as the Exonerated Five) had their convictions tossed out and 12 years later, in 2014, New York City acknowledged the failure, settling a civil rights lawsuit for $41 million.
Trump maintains that his statements are shielded by the First Amendment, framing them as constitutionally protected opinions.
“This baseless lawsuit is yet another unfounded and meritless attack against President Trump. It exemplifies the very kind of meritless legal action Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP law aims to prevent — shielding free speech from politically motivated abuse. The court’s dismissal of several claims is 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,” Trump’s attorney, Karin Sweigart, said in a statement.
