Shades of E. Jean Carroll. Trump is not teachable. This we have seen over and over and over again. He loves to disparage people and call them all manner of names. But in the case of the Central Park Five, this is not going to do him any good. A defamation lawsuit against Trump was filed after he did the debate with Kamala Harris “during which Harris reminded viewers that Trump was “the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution.”
Trump responded, claiming that “a lot of people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five.”
“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,” Trump said.
Beetlestone ruled that Trump’s statements could be “objectively determined” to be false, so his statement could be construed as fact, not opinion.
“Here, Plaintiffs were not just in the process of being exonerated, their name had been cleared for over twenty years, so Defendant cannot argue that stating that they pleaded guilty to crimes is substantially true, when the truth is that Plaintiffs are not guilty at all of those crimes,” she wrote.
She added that the plaintiffs had “plausibly alleged actual malice” by demonstrating that Trump was “closely familiar” with the Central Park Five’s not-guilty plea, conviction, and subsequent exoneration and therefore knew that they were not guilty and had not hurt or killed anyone at all.
Trump is actual malice personified. Listen to what he said yesterday in the Oval Office about Christopher Krebs being a “wise guy” and Miles Taylor committing “treason.” This is all judgment being rendered from King Donald. Whatever he says is the Word. It is the Truth.
For now we have a judiciary that is still functioning and will stand up to him. We also have Stephen Miller claiming that the judiciary can be defunded by Congress. Talk about autocracy on steroids.
Beetlestone ruled to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and a defamation-by-implication theory included in their original complaint. She wrote that they would be permitted to amend their complaint to omit those arguments.
It’s up to them how they want to plead their case but Trump lives to intentionally inflict emotional distress on people. He loves that like the rest of us love ice cream. Once again, more evidence of the petty, vicious child of a man that we have in the Oval Office.
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Zoomers, thanks to all of you who have contributed. If you’re able to keep us trekking through cyberspace in these trying times, it would be much appreciated. Ursula
At least there is some justice to be had in our land. Similar to the E. Jean Carroll case and the one where Giuliani defamed the 2 women in Georgia. It’s nice to see that they can’t just besmirch people like it doesn’t matter.
Limited justice, I fear: thus far, there’s been no word that either of those plaintiffs, having won their cases, had received any of the compensation payments they were due. Rudy’s bankrupt and Trump never pays.
I hope they own Trump Tower.