Guerline Jozef and the Haitian Bridge Alliance are asking an Ohio court to issue arrest warrants for Donald Trump and JD Vance.
(CN) — A Haitian nonprofit on Tuesday filed citizen criminal charges against Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance for baselessly claiming on the campaign trail that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing and eating people’s pets.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance is calling on Ohio’s Clark County Municipal Court to issue warrants for Trump’s and Vance’s arrests on charges including disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity.
“Trump and Vance falsely claim Haitians are a danger to Springfield,” Guerline Jozef, the group’s executive director, said in a 46-page affidavit invoking its private-citizen right to file the charges after inaction by the local prosecutor.
“Now, many in Springfield face actual harm from threats that have even resulted in closures and lockdowns of government buildings, hospitals, schools, and colleges,” Jozef continued. “Police and fire services are investigating bomb threats rather than focusing on the daily services for which Springfield needs them. Trump and Vance caused a massive disruption to a community and city that deserved better.”
Trump and Vance continue to push the inflammatory claims about Haitians in Springfield, Jozef claims, despite their being debunked repeatedly by local officials and media reports. She cites a recent report from the Wall Street Journal that revealed Vance knew the pet-eating claims were bogus, but kept peddling them anyway.
Trump pushed the narrative on the national stage during the Sept. 10 ABC News presidential debate, saying, “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” in reference to the Springfield Haitian community.
After Trump’s comments that night, Springfield received at least 33 bomb threats and had to evacuate schools and other public institutions.
“Like those who falsely shout ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater, Trump and Vance do not color within the lines of the First Amendment,” Jozef said. “They commit criminal acts.”
Jozef said the local Haitian community is now seeing swarms of harassment while city officials face persistent death threats.
“All the Haitian immigrants and community members to whom we have spoken have told us that, before Trump’s and Vance’s comments, they found people in Springfield to be welcoming, nice, and helpful,” Jozef says. “But since the comments earlier this month, Haitians are receiving hostile comments and feel like they are constantly being watched by people at work and in their neighborhoods.”
In one instance, Jozef claims that a Haitian man was walking in downtown Springfield when a man driving by in a car yelled at him, “Trump is coming for you.” The incident took place just two days after Trump’s comments at the ABC News debate.
Other Haitian migrants in the community have complained that their colleagues at work “repeatedly ask them whether they are cat-eaters.”
“Some have reported feeling so scared that they do not feel like going to work because they do not know what could happen to them at work or on their way to work,” Jozef claims. “Others have said they do not want to be out at night for fear of what could happen to them.”
Jozef filed the charges under an Ohio statute that allows private citizens to file affidavits supporting criminal charges. Local prosecutors need to approve the charges before presenting the case to a grand jury, however.
“Because the prosecuting attorney has not yet acted to protect the community and hold Trump and Vance accountable for what they have instigated, Ms. Jozef asks the court to find probable cause based on the facts presented and issue arrest warrants for both Trump and Vance,” Chandra Law Firm, the Cleveland-based practice representing Jozef, said in a statement.
According to Chandra, the court must hold a hearing before rejecting the affidavit, even if the prosecutors decline to pursue Trump and Vance on the criminal charges.
“The Haitian Bridge Alliance and Ms. Jozef request this court, independently, to find probable cause based on the facts presented and issue arrest warrants for both Trump and Vance,” Jozef said in the affidavit. “Probable cause having already been determined by this court, the prosecuting attorney then must make a public decision about whether that office stands for the rule of law — or whether it will further coddle Trump and Vance with complete inaction.”
A spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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