Nonprofit Files Criminal Charges Against Trump, Vance Over Springfield Lies
A Haitian nonprofit has filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), over false claims they spread against immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
On Tuesday, the Haitian Bridge Alliance — a nonprofit based in San Diego, California — took advantage of an Ohio law allowing private citizens to “file criminal charges” and “requires [the] Court to either issue arrest warrants or refer the matter to the prosecuting attorney for investigation.”
The filing charges Trump and Vance with several criminal offenses, including disrupting public services, committing telecommunications harassment, and aggravating menacing.
“If 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 reads. “Trump and Vance have knowingly spread a false and dangerous narrative by claiming that Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian community is criminally killing and eating neighbors’ dogs and cats, and killing and eating geese. They accused Springfield’s Haitians of bearing deadly disease. They repeated such lies during the presidential debate, at campaign rallies, during interviews on national television, and on social media.”
For the past several weeks Trump, Vance, and a slew of their conservative allies have been pushing false claims that Haitian residents of Springfield have been murdering and eating local pets. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, the spotlight placed on the town has led to a barrage of harassment and threats against residents, as well as local institutions providing support to Haitian families.
“With everything going on right now, with everything being said, how can you not worry that someone with bad intentions might have less than honorable intentions?” Casey Rollins, executive director of the Springfield District Council of St. Vincent de Paul, told Rolling Stone.
Dozens of bomb threats have been leveled against city buildings and local schools, all while Trump and Vance continue to use Springfield as a cudgel against immigrants in the United States. At a Monday rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the former president egged on a crowd of his supporters over the situation in Springfield, as they chanted “send them back” about the immigrants.
Trump has leveraged the panic created around Springfield’s immigrant community to promise mass deportations — despite the majority of the Haitians under attack living in Springfield legally. Last week, Vance admitted on national television that the claims he was spreading about Springfield might be false, and that he is willing to “create stories” to drum up media attention.
“It is our hope and expectation that neither the judiciary nor prosecutors in Springfield view or will treat Trump and Vance as being above the law. We know that if anyone else had wreaked the kind of havoc Trump and Vance have wreaked in Springfield, they would have been prosecuted by now,” the filing says.
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