NEW YORK: The "Central Park Five," five men who were falsely convicted of rape in a notorious 1989 New York case, launched a defamation lawsuit Monday against former US president Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, accuses the Republican White House candidate of making "false and defamatory" comments during the September 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.

The five Black and Hispanic men — Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise — were teenagers when they were convicted of the rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park.

They were eventually exonerated and their convictions were vacated in 2002. They received $41 million in a 2014 settlement with New York City.

Trump, during the presidential debate, "falsely stated that Plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime," the lawsuit said. "These statements are demonstrably false.

"Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing."

The lawsuit also recalled that Trump, 11 days after the Central Park attack, published a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers calling to "bring back the death penalty."

Trump made comments about the "Central Park Five" after Harris mentioned the ad during the debate.

"A lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five," Trump said, apparently confusing former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg with former New York mayor Ed Koch, who was the mayor at the time.

"They admitted — they said, they pled guilty," Trump said. "And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.

"And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty."

The "Central Park Five" are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.