Nonprofit seeks criminal charges against Trump, Vance in Springfield

Criminal charges are being sought against former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate and Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance in a nonprofit's court filing.

The two have made comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield. The Haitian Bridge Alliance made the filing with a supporting affidavit that asks local officials to charge Trump and Vance, according to the Springfield News-Sun.

The nonprofit is represented by The Chandra Law Firm in Cleveland.

A news release on the firm’s website said, “the criminal charges come after Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and his vice-presidential-running-mate Vance, a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, repeatedly made wild accusations that have been repeatedly debunked by both city and state officials and many responsible news outlets.”

The charges asked for include disrupting public services, making false alarms, two counts of complicity, two counts of telecommunications harassment, and aggravated menacing.

“The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted,” said Subodh Chandra, lead attorney for Guerline Jozef, the alliance’s cofounder. “Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now."

Ohio law allows a private citizen wanting an arrest to be made to file an affidavit with a judge, prosecutor or magistrate to review the facts and decide if charges should be filed.

Trump and Vance have repeatedly pushed a narrative that Haitian immigrants in Springfield have been killing and eating pets of the city’s citizens.

City, state and other leaders have repeatedly debunked those claims.