A nonprofit is biting back against the MAGA group who spread baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants were swiping and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Donald Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk were all sued Friday for allegedly causing Haitians “from Florida to California” to suffer from emotional distress, harassment, and threats of violence.
The federal defamation lawsuit, filed in Miami, accuses Vance of being the hoax’s “ringleader,” with him spreading unfounded rumors even after he was told by Springfield’s city manager there was no truth to them.
The lawsuit has demanded compensatory and punitive damages in a jury trial.
“No one in this country is above the law, not even the president or former president of the United States,” the lawsuit said. “Nobody is entitled or has the right to defame an entire group of people, putting their lives in danger, uprooting their daily lives by publicly spurring lies and falsehoods against them.”
The lawsuit was first reported by the Springfield News-Sun and was obtained by the Daily Beast on Tuesday. The lawsuit detailed the hoax’s timeline, which began with racially-charged rumors in right-wing circles that went mainstream after Trump repeated the rumors as fact during his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris.
“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump declared in primetime. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
The Office of the Haitian Diaspora is the group behind the lawsuit. In it, they pulled out old comments from Trump where he allegedly showed “racial animus against Haitian immigrants.” That included his quip from a White House meeting in 2017 when he bizarrely allegedly stated that Haitians “all have AIDS,” as well as his infamous comment a year later where he allegedly said Haiti was among a group of “s—hole countries.” Both comments were denied at the time.
The lawsuit claims Musk contributed to the defamation of Haitians when he posted on Sept. 8, “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten.”
Others to be sued by group included Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), who posted and deleted a gross tirade against Haitians; Dave Yost, the Republican Attorney General of Ohio; Donald Trump Jr., who allegedly spread the debunked rumor on Fox News; and Bernie Moreno, the GOP’s U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio.
The lawsuit called on defendants to stop making false claims about the Haitian community. Trump, Vance, and their associates have gone quiet on the hoax in recent days, however the lawsuit suggests the damage is already done. The hoax spread so far that it led to the brief closure of schools, government offices and hospitals as bomb threats rolled in after the debate.
“The Defendants’ false statements and lies about Haitian migrants are not protected speeches,” the lawsuit states. “They are hate speeches, designed to defame and put the lives of Haitian migrants in danger.”
In another line, the lawsuit claimed the group’s comments weren’t just insulting, but were made with the intent to cause real harm to the Haitian community.
“The falsehoods were not only baseless, but were intended to harm the reputation and integrity of the Haitian migrants and their community,” it said.
