Haitian group in Springfield files citizen criminal charges against Trump, Vance – News-Herald

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

COLUMBUS — The leader of a nonprofit organization representing the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, saying chaos And threats The city has experienced since Trump’s initial expansion made false claims about legal immigrants there during the presidential debate.

The Haiti Bridge Alliance filed the lawsuit using its private citizen rights after the local prosecutor failed to act, according to their attorney, Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm.

Trump and Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, are charged with disrupting public services, false alarm, telecommunications harassment, felony menacing and accessory after the fact. The filing asks the Clark County Municipal Court to confirm probable cause and refer the case for further investigation or issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance.

“The persistence and relentlessness of the governor and the mayor, despite them saying this is wrong, shows their intent,” Chandra said. “This is a willful and deliberate violation of criminal law.”

A Trump-Vance campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

More than 30 bomb threats were made against state and local government buildings and schools, prompting lockdowns, additional law enforcement protection and security cameras. Some of the city’s Haitian residents also said they feared for their safety as public anger grew, and Mayor Rob Rue received death threats.

“If anyone else had done it besides Trump and Vance — the devastation in Springfield, the bomb threats, the evacuation and closure of government buildings and schools, the threats against the mayor and his family — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said. “So the only question really is whether the court and then the prosecutors would treat Trump and Vance the same way they treat everybody else. They are not above the law.”

Chandra said The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in July granted broad immunity to former presidents In this case, the no-criminal prosecution clause is not required because Trump is now a private citizen and Vance did not spread rumors that the 15,000-person Haitian community in Springfield was eating people’s pets in his capacity as a senator.

Specifically, the affidavit alleges that Trump and Vance:

• disrupted public service by “making widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive outages” to Springfield’s public services;
• He raised false alarms by “knowingly creating anxiety in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials say are unfounded”;
• They engaged in telecommunicative harassment by “spreading known false allegations during presidential debates, campaign rallies, national television interviews, and on social media”;
• Making aggravated threats by “knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to harass, threaten, or harass recipients, including Trump’s threats to deport immigrants who have come to Venezuela legally to Venezuela, a country they have never met”;
• Making aggravated threats by “knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of the Springfield Haitian community will cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield”; and
• They violated the prohibition on complicity by “collaborating with each other and spreading malicious lies that led innocent parties to become complicit in various crimes.”

Original Release Date: September 24, 2024, 15:22