'It's about karma': Central Park Five exoneree talks Trump verdict
Yusef Salaam was wrongfully imprisoned for raping a Central Park jogger and was targeted at the time by Donald Trump, who took out a full page ad in the New York Daily News to demand the execution of Salaam and other so-called “Central Park Five” members.
Each was exonerated.
But now, after the former president was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star Salaam says he doesn't harbor hate.
"I think it's proved that the ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice," said Salaam, now a New York City councilman, while appearing on CNN's "NewsNight" with Abby Phillip. "I don't think that we should look at people who are in privileged positions who can use their money and their talk to get out of things. It's about what you're doing. It's about karma. It's about believing and understanding that there will be a reckoning."
He continued: "And I think we have to really, really hone into that and try to do the best that we can with what we have all the time. Not do evil. Here he is now saying, you know what 'Give me leniency! These people are corrupt! These people are — everything that he has shown us those words are falling on him."
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Back in 1989, Salaam -- along with Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Antron McCray -- were all teenagers when they were falsely convicted on rape charges of a white woman jogging.
Their fate was brought on partly on police-coerced confessions that sent each to serve between six and 13-plus years in prison.
In 2014, New York City awarded a $41 million settlement for the wrongful conviction.
For Salaam, it's hard to erase the hate fueled by the real estate mogul Trump directed at him and the other four innocents.
"When I think about the juxtaposition of what happened 34 years ago, 35 years ago — Donald Trump wanted the state to kill us and they looked at us because they said 'They're guilty because of the color of their skin!' in a country that says you're innocent until proven guilty," he said. "And so he was a fire starter that literally lit the match to make people believe that black and brown people were guilty of some of the most heinous things that you could ever imagine."
Salaam was asked if he would accept an apology from Trump. In 2019, Trump was asked if he would apologize for the treatment of Salaam and others and he responded, "You have people on both sides of that,” he said at the White House. “They admitted their guilt.”
"Too late," Salaam said.
Watch the video below or at this link.