Donald Trump and JD Vance’s racist fearmongering about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, have led to violent threats against the community and the city. Now, a Haitian community group is seeking criminal charges against Trump and his running mate, citing local prosecutors’ failure to take action.
Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the national nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, filed charges in the Clark County Municipal Court on behalf of the group on Tuesday. The filing points to statements that Trump and Vance made at campaign rallies and on national television and social media. The affidavit urges the court to find probable cause and issue warrants for their arrest for several offenses, including making false alarms, aggravated menacing and telecommunications harassment.
“[I]f anyone else had done what they have done, to the devastating effect experienced in Springfield, police and prosecutors would have filed charges by now,” the filing says.
It is rare for private citizens to file a criminal affidavit against others in Ohio, but state law allows for it. Hearings must take place before the affidavit can proceed. As of Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled, NBC News reported.
The group’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, said Jozef invoked his right to file charges as a private citizen due to inaction from a prosecuting attorney, according to NBC News.
Trump-Vance campaign communications director Steven Cheung told NBC News in a statement that Trump “is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that Kamala Harris has overseen.” He went on to falsely characterize Springfield’s Haitian population as “illegal immigrants.” (Many of the city’s Haitian residents are legally in the U.S. under the federal government’s Temporary Protected Status program.”) Trump and Vance have repeatedly and falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating their neighbors’ pets and spreading communicable diseases. As a result, Haitian residents have reported being harassed and said they fear leaving the house, and the small Ohio city has been targeted with multiple bomb threats — 33 in the last two weeks, according to the filing. The Republican presidential ticket has admitted that they do not have credible evidence to support those claims, and Vance has even appeared to suggest they may be fabricated. Local officials have said that there have been no such credible reports of people eating pets and that there is no rise in communicable diseases. Last week, The Wall Street Journal traced one specific claim to a Springfield resident who said her missing cat was found in her basement days later and that she had apologized to her Haitian neighbors.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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