Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, stand on stage at a campaign rally at North Carolina Aviation Museum, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Asheboro, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson).
Citing an Ohio statute permitting citizens to file an affidavit alleging criminal offenses, a Haitian group and its leader are asking a court to find probable cause to arrest former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance for “harmful lies” about immigrants in the U.S. legally are “eating the cats,” dogs, and pets of people in Springfield.
The affidavit, filed in Clark County Municipal Court by immigration-focused nonprofit the Haitian Bridge Alliance, Guerline Jozef, and her attorney Subodh Chandra, says Trump and Vance were told “[a]t every turn,” whether by the Springfield city manager, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), “fact-checkers, press, officials,” and locals that the pet-eating claims were “baseless,” and yet they “orchestrated a campaign of lies” and “spread a false narrative that Haitians in Springfield are a danger.”
The filing then asked a judge to find probable cause that Trump and Vance committed several crimes by doing so, including “Making False Alarms,” “Aggravated Menacing,” “Disrupting Public Services,” and “Telecommunications Harassment.”
“The Haitian Bridge Alliance and Ms. Jozef respectfully request that this Court make independent findings of probable cause based on the facts presented—and issue warrant for Trump’s and Vance’s arrest,” the filing said.
Notably, the affidavit assigns blame to Trump and Vance for hoax bomb threats attributed to foreign actors.
“Trump knew his statements about Springfield’s Haitian community were false and likely to cause a public inconvenience and alarm,” the affidavit said. “He knew because his and Vance’s words were already causing public inconvenience and alarm, as expressed by the mayor and the governor.”
The relevant portion of the statute in play here says as follows:
A private citizen having knowledge of the facts who seeks to cause an arrest or prosecution under this section may file an affidavit charging the offense committed with a reviewing official for the purpose of review to determine if a complaint should be filed by the prosecuting attorney or attorney charged by law with the prosecution of offenses in the court or before the magistrate.
Attorney Chandra said in a statement that Vance and Trump “must be held accountable to the rule of law” for “relentless, irresponsible, false alarms” that left the Haitian community “suffering in fear[.]”
“Anyone else who wreaked havoc they way they did would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said.
Law&Crime sought comment from the Trump campaign.
Read the affidavit here.
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