Former US President Donald Trump struck a deal and avoided a civil lawsuit against plaintiffs of Mexican descent who accused his bodyguards of assaulting them during a protest in New York in 2015, a lawyer said on the night. between Wednesday and Thursday.
The lawyers of both sides have settled in recent days in another criminal trial just started in New York against the family-owned Trump Organization, sued for tax evasion.
“Although impatient to go to trial to demonstrate the lightness of this complaint, the two camps have finally managed to reach an amicable solution” and “we are happy that this issue is resolved once and for all”, he commented in a note to the press. Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba.
Alongside the plaintiffs, a group of New Yorkers of Mexican descent, their attorney Benjamin Dictor expressed in an email their “proud” of having “obtained a written acknowledgment from Donald Trump of their right to demonstrate on the public highway.”
“Powerful men can register their names on the pediment of buildings, but the pavements will always belong to the people”, launched the lawyer.
On September 3, 2015, his clients demonstrated in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan and many of them claimed they were beaten by the businessman’s bodyguards in front of the New York skyscraper.
At the time, these plaintiffs were furious with Republican primary candidate Trump, who accused Mexicans of exporting “drugs” and “crime” to the United States and of being “rapists.”
The billionaire, summoned by the protesters, had described their complaint as a “ridiculous story” and his civil trial had been constantly postponed before this amicable settlement.
Donald Trump was yet to testify under oath in October 2021, for four hours via videoconference under the auspices of the New York State Supreme Court. To justify himself, he said at the time that he was afraid during his 2016 campaign that protesters hostile to him meeting him would throw “very dangerous” fruits like “pineapples, tomatoes, bananas” that they could “kill”.
