Yusef Salaam, one of the wrongfully convicted Central Park Five teens, reacted to Donald Trump indictment in one word. Salaam, in a statement, said: “Karma”.

The former US President will be charged over hush money payments made to a playboy model Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. The details of the charges he will face have not been released.

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The Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him on criminal charges, after probing a $130,000 payout to Daniels in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair. However, Trump denies the affair.

Trump is the first serving or former US president to face criminal charges. He lives in Florida and is likely to travel to New York City for his formal arrest and first hearing in court.

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Yusef Salaam is one of the five New York teens wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park.

The five teenagers, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Salaam, were beaten and coerced by New York City police into falsely confessing to the rape. They spent several years in prison for a horrific crime that they did not commit.

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Salaam was 15 years old when his life was upended. He was imprisoned for six years and eight months before his exoneration.

“I look at Donald Trump, and I understand him as a representation of a symptom of America,” Salaam said in a 2019 interview with BBC. “We were convicted because of the color of our skin. People thought the worst of us,” he added. “And this is all because of prominent New Yorkers—especially Donald Trump,” he added.

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Salaam has now become a family man, father, poet, activist, and inspirational speaker. Through his platform, Salaam shares his story with other and educate the public about the impact of mass incarceration and police brutality.