Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s SICKENING PAST Resurfaces in Surprise NEW LAWSUIT

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

The Exonerated 5–former teenagers wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit against the “Central Park jogger” in 1989, have sued Donald Trump in a new federal case for defamation for comments he made against them at the presidential debate. Michael Popok explains what he believes the final straw was for the plaintiffs to finally sue Trump and predicts what will happen next. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join the LegalAF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/legalAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. The exonerated five are taking Donald Trump to court and have sued him for defamation related to his continuing doubling down on the false narrative that the former teenagers brutally assaulted a jogger in Central Park in 1989. They've been exonerated. They've been paid tens of millions of dollars by New York

because they were browbeated and abused into coerced confessions. They eventually were convicted. paid tens of millions of dollars by New York because they were browbeated and abused into coerced confessions. They eventually were convicted. They served many, many years in jail. And Donald Trump is personally responsible for most of what happened to the Central Park Five, the exonerated Five now, because he continued to stoke the flames of hatred against them at a critical moment in New York when New York was a tinderbox

of racial strife in 1989. I was in New York at NYU in college. I remember these times well, and I remember what happened in Central Park. Now Donald Trump can't give it up. He's like a dog with a perverse bone. He won't give up the fact that he attacked and defamed them back in 1989 when he ran full page ads that he paid for in the New York Times that cost them over $80,000 for full-page ads calling for the death penalty and execution of these teenagers. And every year since, including during his campaign in 2016, all the way up to the debate that happened in September with Kamala Harris, he has said those way up to the debate that happened in September with Kamala Harris, he has said those five individuals, those five former teenagers, now adult men, were guilty and that they should

not have been exonerated, they should not have been settled with the state, and that there was enough evidence to convict them. What I think was the final straw for the exonerated five, who also appeared, we're going to show you a clip in a minute, at the DNC, Democratic National Convention, rightly up there being introduced by Reverend Al Sharpton in support of Kamala Harris. I think the thing that sparked this filing in federal court in Pennsylvania, the location of the debate by the exonerated Five, and we shall say their name. We have Yousuf Salam, we have Mr. Santana, Mr. Richardson, and Corey Wise. And now, by the way, Mr. Salam is a councilman elected official in New York. This is the spark,

though. After the debate, Councilman Salam was in the spin room related to his support of Kamala Harris. Donald Trump saw him either thinking he was just a tall distinguished black man that was somehow on his side of the spin room supporting him not recognizing Salam as the former teenager that he called to have executed, and he said, good, you're with me, you're with me. And he said, I'm not with you. People that observed this in the room, including the head of the NAACP chapter, said it looked like Donald Trump did not recognize the black that was in the spin room and thought that that guy was on his side, not recognizing that that was Yousef Salam

part of the Exonerated Five of all things. And I think that from a human dimension, sparked them to file this defamation case, enough is enough. They've been defamed before, in 2016 and 2019 and 2020. There's various clips of this. Let me explain what was originally referred to as the Central Park Five, and then we'll show a clip of what happened during the debate. Let me first do a clip of what happened at the debate, which is the basis of the defamation case that's just been filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Let's run the clip that came up in the debate with Kamala Harris. President Harris.

Thank you. Lindsey. President Trump, this is now your third time. 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, they 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's because the press keeps pressing Donald Trump about whether he'll ever apologize to the Central Park Five, the exonerated Five. He says no. And when he's really pushed and backed into a corner, he says things like you just heard. Well, there was a lot of evidence. They did confess, not recognizing that these four teenagers, five teenagers were browbeated and their confessions were effectively beat out of them after hours and hours, dozens and hours of being separated from their families, their parents, being separated from lawyers under duress and coercion. That's how these confessions, quote unquote, came out. They

pled not guilty, they went to trial. But again, the air and the atmosphere, how do you pick a jury in New York in 1989 or so when Donald Trump is putting full-page ads with, let's roll it, we'll show it here, full-page ads in the New York Times that call for their execution. I mean this is the time when I went to college, just as a little bit of an aside, just to put it in context, I went to college in 1984 in Manhattan at NYU. By 19... Right before I went to school in 1983, Bernie Getz infamously pulled out a gun and shot teenagers on a subway who he said were threatening him with a screwdriver that was never found.

You know, this was subways coming in with graffiti, broken windows. This was not, you know, the disnification of New York at the time. Central Park was a dangerous and scary place, as beautiful as it is now. You did not go running or walking in there after dark. You would do it now, and I used to live near Central Park, but you wouldn't do it then.

Although this Wall Street investment banker, Trisha Mellie, in the years since then we know her identity, she went jogging and got brutally beaten with a rock and sexually assaulted. Now immediately the police just latched onto these five kids that were what they called wiling or performing like a wolf pack. They were just goofing around in the park after dark.

They weren't bothering anybody. They certainly weren't assaulting people with rocks and sexually abusing them. Now, many years later, after they had already served their time, a convicted murderer and rapist, the real assailant through DNA testing was ultimately convicted and confessed

to having beaten and dragged a lifeless body of Miss Mellie into a bush and sexually assaulting her. And he was the true assailant, not these gentlemen. And they eventually got out. Most of them were horribly psychologically disfigured by this event. In fact, let me show you Corey Wise, who very honorably and with great courage got up at the DNC as a guest of Kamala Harris and gave this moving speech about his exoneration and against Donald Trump. Let's watch it.

My name is Cory Wise. 35 years ago, my friends and I were in prison for a crime we did not commit. Our youth was stolen from us. Every day as we walked into court room, people screamed at us, threatened us, because of Donald Trump. He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in the New York Times, calling for our execution.

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh.

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. We were innocent kids, but we served a total of 41 years in prison. Reverend Al Sharpton stood with us. Now, I'm proud to stand with him today.

(*applause*) Vice President Kamala Harris has also worked to make things fairer. I know she will do the same as president. Now approve that message. But again, I want to make it clear. Donald Trump, I believe, has blood on his hands, of course. It was personally responsible for the jury ultimately convicting these guys by stoking the flames of hatred in New York at a moment when any little spark could have tipped it over. I mean, this is

where we had the riots in Crown Heights, when a Hasidic driver ran over by accident a black teen. That led to riots. Al Sharpton was part of that movement at the time. So this is the backdrop. You have to go back to 1989 and see what's happening here. And then you move forward to today, Corey Wise is not doing well. You can see from that clip, I mean,

as courageous and authentic as that was, he is psychologically traumatized. It's one of the reasons the city paid over $41 million to these five. Traditional bedsheets, they can harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat. It can lead to acne, allergies, and stuffy noses, and it's just gross. Miracle Maid offers a whole line of self-cleaning antibacterial bedding, such as sheets, pillowcases, and comforters that prevent up to 99.7% of bacteria growth and require up to three times less laundry. Using silver-infused fabrics inspired by NASA, Miracle-Made sheets are thermoregulating and

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Again, that's trymiracle.com slash Legal AF to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle Made, for sponsoring this episode. And give Yusuf Salam a lot of credit. He could have just retired, rode off into the sunset, certainly deserved it. But he decided to serve the public and become a public servant and ran for council member a very powerful position, elected official in New York and won and will be reelected. Now, Donald Trump has had a lot of opportunities. Just to show you the hatred that he stoked, he talks about hate back in 1989 in a series

of interviews. Here's a clip from one of Donald Trump's interviews from 1989 talking about what's now referred to as the Exonerated Five, then the Central Park Five, about why he was pushing for ads calling for their execution and to have them be given the death penalty. Let's roll that clip. Of course I hate these people and let's all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we're gonna get something done. So now let's move fast forward. Corey Wise, Yusuf Salam, Mr. Santana go up on the stage at the Democratic National Convention. They give their speech.

Yusuf Salam goes to the debate and is in the spin room after the debate on September the 10th in Pennsylvania when Donald Trump mistakes him for somebody else. That's what observers believe. Didn't recognize Yusuf Salam, the teenager in 1989 he wanted, hanged, now standing before him, in an elegant suit, as a spokesperson on behalf of Kamala Harris, and says, good, good, you're with me. And that, I'm sure, insulted, demeaned, and triggered, rightly so, Mr. Salam and the rest of the five that said enough is enough,

we're suing him for defamation. Now, Donald Trump has a long history in the last five years, last 10 years of being sued for defamation and those people winning against him in front of juries. E. Jean Carroll, example one and two, two separate cases involving E. Jean Carroll, while Donald Trump continued to double down on his attacks on her, his slurs on her, saying that he did not sexually assault her in that dressing room in the department store in New York when two separate juries in federal court have said that he did and defamed her and awarded her punitive damages in total. The total package, two separate juries approaching a hundred million dollars. That's one set of defamation. He's been sued before for defamation and lost. And now the exonerated five are the latest plaintiffs

who have sued in federal court. These statements were made without immunity protection. Donald Trump will try to argue, oh, First Amendment. But there are limits to the First Amendment, even core political speech during a debate. And if you're going to defame, as we will see during this clip here, if you're going to defame these guys, they're going to have the right to sue you.

Let's run the clip during the debate. President Harris. Thank you. Lindsey. President Trump, this is now your third time. 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, 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 per- Exactly. So that's where we're at. You've got these statements because Donald Trump has boxed himself into a corner.

So he has to say that this is the most divisive presidency in the history of our country, pointing to Biden, no less. There's never been anything like it. This is ultimate projection by Donald Trump. They're destroying our country and they come up with things like that. She just said, going back, this is pointing the she there is the, is the moderator going back many, many years when 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, they didn't kill a person. And if they pled guilty, then they pled we're not guilty. Okay, let me unpack that. First of all, the Trisha Mellie was horribly injured, but she's still alive. She wasn't even by the real assailant, Mr. Reyes,

she wasn't killed. And You'd have to ignore the entirety of the evidence that came out later and the reason that the city settled with the five, about them being at 14, 15, and 16-year-olds separated from their parents and psychological warfare being used on them by out of control New York City detectives and prosecutors separated from their lawyers and then, oh, they got a confession out of them. I mean, there's a document, well, there's a show about that, about that that's up there, This Is Us, and you should watch it about the Exonerated Five. But I don't know if they would have brought this case had Donald Trump not had that fateful

encounter with Mr. Salam in the spin room after the debate. I think that's it, especially since they filed it in Pennsylvania where the debate happened because that's easy. That's where it was said. That's the perfect location for the case. What's going to happen next? Well, we got a filing. We got a complaint. He'll move, I'm sure, to dismiss it. it was said, that's the perfect location for the case. And what's going to happen next? Well, we got a filing, we got a complaint.

He'll move, I'm sure, to dismiss it. He doesn't have immunity. He's not the president of the United States. Defamation overcomes aspects of the First Amendment. You don't get to say just anything. The exonerated five are probably considered to be public figures at this point, which means they're going to have to prove

that Donald Trump said these things about them, considered to be public figures at this point, which means they're going to have to prove that Donald Trump said these things about them again with actual malice. That's a term of art that comes out of the United States Supreme Court case, Times v. Sullivan, which says that if you're a public figure, there's a higher standard. What you can say against your neighbor who's not well known, you have a lower standard. That neighbor only has to show it is untrue and has defamatory meaning and that they were damaged, or it's a certain type of defamation that doesn't even require actual damage. When you're a person of public figure like The Five, they're going to have to prove that Donald Trump did it with actual knowledge that he

knew, he knew or should have known that what he was saying was false. I think they can prove that here. I think they can prove based on the 30 plus years of evidence where Donald Trump knew or should have known that what he's saying is incorrect and will lead to defamation. It's going to be up to a federal judge, there'll be a motion to dismiss, I'm sure it will be denied. It'll go to summary judgment, where a judge may decide the case without a jury. And if the judge feels he can't decide the case on summary judgment, because the facts are in conflict about the knowledge that Donald Trump

may or may not have had about the evidence in favor of the exoneration of the five, then he'll let it go to a jury. That'll be something that'll happen in 2025 late, maybe 2026. These cases take a while. To answer the question that I'm sure will come up in advance, what about the immunity and what about the ability to pardon? This is a state court, a state claim for defamation, not a federal claim. The reason it's in federal court applying state law, a little bit of confusion here, is because if you have diversity of citizenship, right, the exonerated five live primarily in New York. Donald Trump's claims he lives primarily in Florida. That's where he claims his homestead, his residency,

and therefore New York versus Florida for a case involving damages in excess of 75,000 or more, which this one will be in the tens of millions of dollars, of course, that you get to go to federal court under what's called diversity jurisdiction. And in diversity jurisdiction, a federal judge sits as if they are a state court judge applying state law. Long-winded way of saying this will be a state court, a state claim, if they prevail and he will not, Donald Trump, be able to pardon himself, if you will, for a state claim. Because first of all, the pardon power is about criminal, not civil, so there's no pardon ability,

and it's also in state court. So for those reasons, don't worry about pardons if Donald Trump somehow found himself back in the White House. He may be able to stay the case if he were elected on November 5th or coming into the swearing in, the inauguration, he may be able to do that and delay it until he's out of office. So the case will have a pin put in it. If that's the case, it'll be stayed. The statute of limitations will be held in abeyance on ICE,

and the case will restart once he were to leave office. Of course, if he loses, another incentive for him to lose, for people to vote against him, this case will continue against the person who just lost for the second time the presidency. That's an overview of where we are with the Exonerated Five and Donald Trump here on the Midas Touch Network. And if you like this kind of legal analysis at the intersection of law and politics,

find out what 50 million people a month already know. We got a brand new channel, Legal AFMTN, Legal AF channel over on YouTube in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. Just put in at Legal AFMTN for Midas Touch Network. You'll find us all the new content. We're doing five, six videos a day. We've got all new contributors at the intersection of law and politics and people from the Midas universe that you still know and love. And of course, a lot of my hot takes and analysis right over there, LegalAFMTN. So until my next hot take,

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