President Donald Trump has lost his bid to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by the Exonerated Five, previously known as the Central Park Five. A federal judge ruled Thursday that the case—stemming from decades of controversial remarks and a recent presidential debate—can proceed, moving Trump one step closer to potential civil liability.
The plaintiffs—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray (formerly identified as Antron Brown), and Korey Wise—were wrongfully convicted as teenagers in the 1989 assault and rape of jogger Patricia Meili in New York’s Central Park.
At the time, Trump notoriously took out full-page ads in four major New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty, a move widely seen as a public condemnation of the five young men before they had even gone to trial.
Though their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another man confessed to the crime and DNA evidence corroborated his story, Trump has continued to question their innocence, most recently during a televised presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
In that 2023 debate, Harris referenced Trump’s inflammatory 1989 newspaper ad. In response, Trump doubled down: “They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.”
This statement formed the basis of the defamation suit, as none of the men pled guilty, and no one died in the incident.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled Thursday that it is “plausibly inferred” that Trump had knowledge of the plaintiffs’ exoneration and continued to make knowingly false statements about their guilt.
“Plaintiffs allege that Trump had sufficient knowledge of their wrongful conviction and exoneration to have understood that they did not plead guilty, nobody died, and they are indeed not guilty,” Beetlestone wrote.
While the judge allowed the core defamation claims to proceed, she dismissed a portion of the lawsuit—specifically claims related to emotional distress—saying that the plaintiffs had not yet met the legal burden of proving physical harm.
The Exonerated Five, who have become prominent criminal justice reform advocates, hailed the ruling as a step toward accountability.
Trump’s legal team has not yet responded publicly to the ruling. But the lawsuit now proceeds into discovery and potentially trial, keeping Trump entangled in yet another legal battle as he continues to campaign for a return to the White House.
