The leader of a nonprofit representing the Haitian community invoked a private-citizen right to file charges Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, over the chaos and threats experienced by Springfield, Ohio, since Trump first spread false claims about legal immigrants there during a presidential debate.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance made the move after inaction by the local prosecutor, said their attorney, Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm.
Charges brought by private citizens are rare, but not unheard of, in Ohio. Examples might be a grocery store charging a customer for a bounced check. State law requires a hearing to take place before the affidavit can move forward. As of Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled.
Trump and Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, are charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity. The filing asks the Clark County Municipal Court to affirm that there is probable cause and issue arrest warrants against Trump and Vance.
“Their persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying this is false, that shows intent,” Chandra said. “It's knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.”
Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, said, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that (Vice President) Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country.”
The 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past several years, in many cases after being recruited to local jobs, have been granted Temporary Protected Status to be in the U.S. legally.
More than 30 bomb threats were directed at state and local government buildings and schools, prompting closures, the assignment of additional law enforcement protection and security cameras. Some of the city's Haitian residents have also said they feared for their safety as public vitriol grew, and Mayor Rob Rue has received death threats.
“If it were anyone else other than Trump and Vance who had done what they’ve done — wreak havoc on Springfield, resulting in bomb threats, evacuated and closed government buildings and schools, threats to the mayor and his family — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said. “They are not above the law.”
Chandra said the U.S. Supreme Court's July ruling granting ex-presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution does not apply in this case because Trump is currently a private citizen and Vance did not amplify the rumors that members of Springfield's 15,000-member Haitian community were eating people's pets in his capacity as a senator.
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28 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Nice. Take what assets remain.
Blacklabel
who is completely non partisan and will be found to have zero political or financial connections to Kamala Harris.
right?
Cards fan
If the system is so failed, no one would need to lie to prove how failed the system is.
Good on The Haitian Bridge Alliance for filing charges. They deserve it.
dagon
Good on them and power to the people. I hope many more charges are brought against MAGA for the disinfo and chaos they bring.
bass4funk
What a waste of time, not going anywhere.
bass4funk
It’s not a lawsuit. There’s no grounds for that.
It’s an affidavit alleging crimes. It has no chance of success
And more importantly, It’s a publicity stunt with no substance. Literally any citizen can file an affidavit under this statute, right? And then, all that happens is a "reviewing official" decides if there was actually a crime that occurred.
This is a giant "nothing"
Blacklabel
“Citizen” criminal charges.
filed by political operatives on behalf of….:.non-citizens.
jackandjill
Trump and Vance put their foots into a dog piles.
Bob Fosse
I disagree. One could say it’s ‘rightfully highlighting’ the lies and desperation of the ex president and his poorly selected VP.
In this case however it’s rightfully highlighting something that exists instead of something that doesn’t.
lincolnman
Good. Now hire the same lawyers that got three-fourths of a billion dollars from Murdoch and Fox News for their lies and libel...
stormcrow
Commanders in hate. They should both go to Springfield, Ohio, and apologize to the Haitian community there.
WoodyLee
Good, and I hope they win.
bass4funk
The left and establishment continue to say this and they’re proven wrong each and every single time.
Hmmm…
It’s an affidavit, this thing will never amount to anything, but if these people want to waste their time, that’s on them
Blacklabel
The more spotlight on places like this the better.
a citizens complaint by non citizens is an apt representation of the nonsense going on here and similar places.
48 hours to a financial/political connection between this group leadership and Kamala.
Bob Fosse
But this is incorrect, isn’t it? They are legal tax paying citizens of the city.
45 and JD however are not yet managed to create a national controversy over an issue they know nothing about and ended up looking foolish over it.
”They’re eating the dogs!” will haunt 45 and his legacy long after we are gone.
TokyoLiving
Good for that people..
Sue those fascist clowns..
Desert Tortoise
Miss Sassy, the cat who's owner filed a police report that JD Vance used to claim Haitians were eating pets? Turns out she is very much alive and was just hiding in the owner's basement.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/cat-at-center-of-jd-vance-pet-eating-claims-is-alive-and-well
Desert Tortoise
Be grateful you have a bunch of poor hungry immigrants willing to do the shyte jobs these delicate born in the USA types are too soft to do. You kick these immigrants around, treat them like dog doo, disparage them and all the while forget that your very own grandparents or great grandparents were themselves poor, poorly educated immigrants who struggled with poverty and being put down by the WASP majority. How low can you go Bass?
Desert Tortoise
I'd much rather have a poor Haitian immigrant for a next door neighbor than a born in the USA bigot.
Blacklabel
residents of the city under a special program just for them.
bass4funk
Many aren’t and there are millions of impoverished Americans that would do the job if offered, that old myth that Americans won’t do the job is just one of the worst stereotypes in history.
If they are illegal then they should not be in the US, and why is it that liberals don’t want to take them in?
I didn’t, I’m stating the truth. And yes, my relatives came to the US legally and went through the process.
Some dude
Put it this way. If the US somehow sees sense and votes Harris in, I imagine the partying in Springfield OH will be even more enthusiastic than in the other parts of the country.
Blacklabel
Why? Are the Haitians going to vote for her?
Some dude
I was very much on “the left” my whole life
(strokes chin with exaggerated gesture)
Blacklabel
Yep. My favorite president of all time is Bill Clinton as I have said numerous times.
can stroke whatever you want, that won’t change the truth. I wrote your “play book”
plasticmonkey
They are not illegal. And they are not eating pets.
Some dude
11:24 am JST
Yep. My favorite president of all time is Bill Clinton as I have said numerous times.
can stroke whatever you want, that won’t change the truth. I wrote your “play book”
My "playbook"?I'm an outside observer. Not even American, for which I regularly thank my lucky stars. And if you really think it's a flex to pivot from Bill Clinton, who was (while a naughty boy) a top tier president, to Trump, who's a dumpster fire...well, you're going to need to be a lot more convincing if you want anyone with a functioning IQ to believe you.
bass4funk
I don’t know, you don’t know, none of us were there to verify it.
Again, we weren’t there, so I’m staying neutral on this one.