“Their persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying this is false, that shows intent,” Chandra said. “It’s knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.”
The leader of a nonprofit representing the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, filed criminal charges Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, over the chaos and threats experienced by the city since Trump first spread false claims about legal immigrants there during a presidential debate.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance invoked its private-citizen right to file the charges in the wake of inaction by the local prosecutor, said their attorney, Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm.
In Ohio, the public can file criminal charges on their own like a prosecutor would. Cleveland’s Chandra Law Firm announced its client, the Haitian Bridge Alliance based in California, had brought seven offenses against the Republican nominees for president and vice president:
- Disrupting public services
- Making false alarms
- Two counts of complicity, with one referencing Ohio law and another violating a Springfield city ordinance, that court documents described as “conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes”
- Two counts of telecommunications harassment, with one claiming violation of Ohio law and another against a Springfield city ordinance
- Aggravated menacing
