The leader of a Haitian nonprofit community organization filed criminal charges Tuesday against former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, for falsely claiming that Haitian immigrants were eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Guerin Joseph, co-founder and executive director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the group.
“Over the past two weeks, Trump and Vance have both led efforts to smear and intimidate the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio,” Joseph wrote. “They worked together to spread and amplify claims, now debunked, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield eat cats, dogs, and wild animals.”
Subodh Chandra, the group’s lawyer, said prosecutors had not argued that Joseph had the right to sue as a private citizen.
Ohio law allows private citizens to submit sworn statements about suspected criminals. But the law requires that a hearing be held before the affidavit can be submitted. As of Tuesday afternoon, no hearings had been scheduled.
The complaint charges Trump and Vance with obstruction of public service, misinformation, conspiracy, harassment by communication and aggravated intimidation, and asks the Clark County District Court to find probable cause and issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance.
“If anyone else had been disrupting public business, spreading misinformation and harassing communications in the way that President Trump and Governor Vance have continued to lie relentlessly, they would have been arrested already, even after the Governor and Mayor said they were lying,” Chandra said in a statement Tuesday. “They, like all of us, must be held accountable to the rule of law.”
Stephen Chang, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, said in a statement that Trump was “rightly highlighting the failed immigration system overseen by Kamala Harris that has allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to flood into Springfield and many other communities across the country.”
City officials have repeatedly said allegations that Haitian immigrants have entered Springfield illegally are untrue.
During a presidential debate this month, Trump said Haitians in Springfield “eat the pets of people who live there.” He continues to spread false claims about Springfield’s pets on his social media websites and at rallies.
Vance repeated this false claim, writing to X before the debate about reports that “pets had been kidnapped and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country,” and repeating the claim in subsequent interviews.
The city of Springfield has responded to more than 33 bomb threats this month, forcing the temporary closure and evacuation of schools and city buildings. Mayor Rob Lew has also endured threats, Chandra said.
Springfield city officials have said the allegations are unfounded, and police said in a statement that there have been “no credible reports” of Haitian immigrants harming pets.
In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Friday, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who had dismissed the pet-eating claims as “nonsense,” also cited an influx of Haitian immigrants over the past three years and disputed claims that they had settled in the city illegally.
“They are there legally. They are there to work,” he wrote.
The Associated Press contributed.
