The leader of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance filed charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, for the chaos that ensued from their uncorroborated statements about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets, according to the Cleveland law firm representing the organization.
The Chandra Law Firm says the nonprofit used a state statute allowing private citizens to "file an affidavit charging the offense committed."
The following charges were filed in Clark County Municipal Court.
- 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.
Through the filing, the nonprofit asks the court to affirm probable cause and to issue arrest warrants. The court must have a hearing and could reject the affidavit as part of the legal process.
The law firm said the charges "stem from the impact of Trump’s and Vance’s baseless fearmongering that legal Haitian immigrants to the Ohio town are eating their neighbor’s pets."
“The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted. Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now," lead counsel Subodh Chandra said. "There’s nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they’ve done and are doing. They think they're above the law. They're not."
RELATED STORY | Springfield, Ohio, residents continue facing threats following pet-eating hoax
Springfield has been inundated with hoax bomb threats since the presidential debate when Trump baselessly accused members of Springfield's Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs.
Vance amplified debunked internet rumors about Haitian migrants as the Republican ticket criticized the immigration policies of President Joe Biden's administration that are supported by Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
RELATED STORY | Ohio community supports Haitian restaurant following week of false pet-eating claims
City officials acknowledge growing pains from the influx of some 15,000 Haitian immigrants but say there's no evidence to support the claim they are eating anyone's pets.
Following intense criticism, Vance appeared on CNN and said, "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report, which was originally published by Scripps News Cleveland.
