Haitian group in Springfield files criminal lawsuit against Trump, Vance over false pet allegations

The leader of a nonprofit community group in Haiti filed a criminal lawsuit Tuesday against former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. on false allegations What they did about Haitian immigrants eating local pets In Springfield, Ohio.

Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance, filed charges On behalf of the group.

“For the past two weeks, both Trump and Vance have led an effort to smear and threaten the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio,” Jozef wrote. “Together, they have spread and amplified the debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating cats, dogs, and wildlife.”

The group’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, defended Jozef’s right as a private citizen to bring charges, citing the prosecution’s failure to act.

Trump and Vance are charged with disrupting public services, false alarm, accessory after the fact, telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing in the filing, which asks the Clark County Municipal Court to rule that there is probable cause and to issue warrants for their arrest.

“If anyone else had disrupted public service, set off false alarms, and engaged in telecommunications harassment the way Trump and Vance have done with their relentless and persistent lies — even after the governor and mayor said what they said was false — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said in a statement Tuesday. “They, too, must be held accountable to the rule of law, just like the rest of us will be.”

Trump “rightfully highlighted the failed immigration system that Kamala Harris oversaw and that has led to thousands of illegal immigrants flooding into Springfield and many other communities across the country,” Trump-Vance campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.

City officials I’ve said it many times The claim that Haitian immigrants came to Springfield illegally is not true.

Trump said in this month’s presidential debate that Haitians in Springfield “eat the pets of the people who live there.” He has continued to spread false claims about pets in Springfield on his social media site and at rallies.

Vance echoed these false claims, writing: Write to X Before and after the controversy over reports that “people’s pets are being kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country” doubling On the allegations in the interviews.

Springfield responded to over 33 people bomb threats This month, there have been incidents that have led to temporary closures and evacuations of schools and city buildings, and Mayor Rob Rue has also faced threats, according to Chandra.

Authorities in Springfield said the allegations were unfounded, with city police saying,no reliable reports“Haitian immigrants harming their pets”.

Inside a column Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, published by The New York Times on Friday, previously dismissed Addressing the claims that eating pets is “garbage,” the declaration also responded to claims that immigrants who have come to Haiti in the last three years have settled in the city illegally.

“They are there legally. They are there to work,” the Republican governor wrote.