A Haitian nonprofit filed criminal charges against Donald Trump and JD Vance on Tuesday for “unrelenting lies” about Springfield, Ohio-area migrants that have led to heightened harassment, including 33 bomb threats in the last two weeks.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance filed the charges in the Clark County Municipal Court, requesting “that this Court make independent findings of probable cause based on the facts presented and issue warrants for Trump’s and Vance’s arrests.”
The nonprofit filed an affidavit using a state statute that allows private citizens to submit such charges, via the Chandra Law Firm. Among the charges levied at the pair are disrupting the public service, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment and complicity.
“The direct impact on Springfield, Ohio, of Trump and Vance’s unrelenting lies cannot be overstated,” the filing says. “During the last two weeks, Springfield has received 33 bomb threats. Many public institutions have been forced to evacuate and vital local resources were diverted to investigate the barrage of threats to the community.”
The Haitian Bridge Alliance are seeking arrest warrants for the following charges:
- Disrupting public service — by causing widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions to the public services in Springfield, Ohio;
- Making false alarms — by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false;
- Committing telecommunications harassment — by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews and social media;
- Committing aggravated menacing in violation — by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten or harass the recipients, including Trump’s threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a land they have never known;
- Committing aggravated menacing — by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of Springfield’s Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield; and
- Violating the prohibition against complicity — by conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.
“Like those who falsely shout ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater, Trump and Vance do not color within the lines of the First Amendment,” the document continued. “They commit criminal acts.”
The charges filed to the Clark County Municipal Court who are now required to have a hearing on the matter before the affidavit can be dismissed.
Representatives for the Trump-Vance presidential campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Trump and Vance have jointly popularized conspiracy theories over the last month that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are kidnapping and eating their neighbors’ pets. “In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats,” Trump said during his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris.
Such claims have been debunked by local Springfield officials, but Vance and Trump continued to parrot the accusations on television and at campaign events. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Vance not only continued the narrative but took credit for popularizing the story: “The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes.”
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