Trump’s Late-Night Meltdown About Stephen Colbert Is Actually a Threat

In the affidavit, the group asked a judge to find probable cause to charge Trump and Vance with making false alarms, aggravated menacing, disrupting public services, and telecommunications harassment, alleging that “at every turn,” the pair were told that the racist narrative of Haitians killing and eating pets, ducks, and geese was false. The affidavit cited Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Springfield’s city manager, local residents, and the press all pointing out the rumor’s falsehood. 

“Trump knew his statements about Springfield’s Haitian community were false and likely to cause a public inconvenience and alarm. He knew because his and Vance’s words were already causing public inconvenience and alarm, as expressed by the mayor and the governor,” the affidavit said.

The former president and Ohio’s junior senator have attempted to use the false rumor for political advantage, with Trump using it to boost his plan for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants despite the fact that Springfield’s Haitians are in the U.S. legally. Vance hasn’t been any better, saying that “if I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”