Dr. Yusef Salaam, who was wrongfully convicted of a brutal 1989 gang rape in New York City as a teenager—in a case that Donald Trump repeatedly commented on—and then imprisoned for seven years before his eventual exoneration, on Thursday weighed in on the former president’s criminal indictment. Hashtagging a tweet “#PowerPost,” Salaam wrote, “For those asking about my statement on the indictment of Donald Trump—who never said sorry for calling for my execution—here it is: Karma.” In 1989, Trump placed full-page advertisements in four New York City newspapers calling for the state to adopt the death penalty, specifically for the five Black youths falsely accused in the case. In 2019, the then-president refused to walk back or apologize for his previous stance, saying at the White House, “You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt.”
