Yusef Salaam, one of five Black and Latino men dubbed the Central Park Five (now the Exonerated Five), parodied an ad that Donald Trump placed in newspapers back in the 1980s calling for New York to “bring back the death penalty.”
“Over 30 years ago, Donald Trump took out full page ads calling for my execution,” Salaam tweeted on Tuesday night. “On the day he was arrested and arraigned, here is my ad in response.”
“Now, after several decades and an unfortunate and disastrous presidency, we all know exactly who Donald J Trump is — A man who seeks to deny justice in fairness for others while claiming only innocence for himself,” he wrote.
“You were wrong then, and you are wrong now,” he added.
Trump, a 2024 GOP candidate for the U.S. presidency, denies all allegations — 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.
“Karma,” Salaam, now a New York City council candidate, tweeted.
In May 1989, Trump indicated in an ad that he was voicing his support of the death penalty because of the rape and assault of a woman jogging in Central Park.
“I want to hate these murderers and I always will,” Trump wrote at the time. “I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.”
Trump wrote in all caps: “Bring back the death penalty and bring back our police!”
Salaam and the other four who were accused had confessed to the crime a month prior, but later said it was due to police coercion. Salaam was imprisoned for six years and eight months.
The wrongful convictions, which were chronicled in a Netflix documentary, “Watch When They See Us,” were overturned in 2002, only after DNA linked serial offender Matias Reyes to the crime.
Reyes also confessed to attacking the then-28-year-old victim.
In 2014, a $41-million settlement was reached between Salaam, the four other men and New York City.
In 2019, then-President Trump refused to apologize for the ad.
“They admitted their guilt,” Trump said in regard to the settlement. “If you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city never should have settled that case — so we’ll leave it at that.”
Trump is currently face 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels. The former adult film star allegedly claimed to have had an affair with the former president in 2006. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid the hush money payment to Daniels one month before the 2016 election.
Cohen had pled guilty to lying to the authorities months after news of the Stormy Daniels hush money payment came out.
Produced in association with Benzinga
