A Haitian nonprofit community leader filed criminal charges Tuesday against former Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. on false claims About Haitian immigrants eating local domestic animals in Springfield, Ohio.
Guerline Joseph, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance, made accusations on behalf of the group.
“Over the past two weeks, both Trump and Vance have made efforts to insult and threaten the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio,” Joseph said. “Together they spread and reinforced the debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield ate cats, dogs and wild animals.”
Subodh Chandra, the group’s lawyer, cited the inaction of a prosecutor who defended Joseph’s right to press charges as a private citizen.
Trump and Vance were charged with disruption of public services, false alarms, conspiracy, telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing in a petition asking Clark County Municipal Court to find probable cause and issue warrants for Trump and Vance’s arrest.
“If someone were to disrupt a public service, raise a false alarm, and engage in telecommunications harassment with their relentless and persistent lies like Trump and Vance, even after the governor and mayor said what they said was false, they would. “They must answer to the rule of law just like all of us,” Chandra said in a statement on Tuesday.
Trump-Vance campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump “rightly highlights the failed immigration system overseen by Kamala Harris, which has poured thousands of illegal immigrants into Springfield and many other communities across the country.”
City officials they have said many times The claim that Haitian immigrants came to Springfield illegally is not true.
During a presidential debate this month, Trump said Haitians in Springfield “eat the pets of the people who live there.” She continued to spread false claims about pets in Springfield on her social media site and at rallies.
Vance, repeating these false claims, a Type in X Before and after discussions about reports showing “people’s pets being kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country” it doubles down about the allegations in their interviews.
Springfield responded with 33 overs bomb threats This month led to the temporary closure and evacuation of schools and city buildings. According to Chandra, Mayor Rob Rue also endured threats.
Springfield officials said the allegations were unfounded, with city police issuing a statement saying, “there are no reliable reports” Haitian immigrants harming pets.
In an op-ed It was Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, published by The New York Times on Friday previously fired Allegations of pets being eaten as “garbage” have also touched on the influx of Haitian immigration over the past three years, countering claims that they have settled illegally in the city.
“They are there legally. They are there to work,” the Republican governor wrote.