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Members of the “Central Park Five” sued former President Donald Trump on Monday over “false and defamatory” statements they say he made about their 1989 case during a presidential debate last month.

The five men allege in a federal lawsuit that Trump knew he was acting with “reckless disregard” for the truth when he said they were pleading guilty to crimes related to the beating and rape during the September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris from a woman in New York. York City, and that the five teens “seriously hurt one person and killed one person” in the attack.

“Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in numerous respects,” attorneys for the men, now all in their 50s, wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia. “Plaintiffs have never pleaded guilty to the attacks on Central Park. The plaintiffs all pleaded not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration, as well as after they were released from prison.”

“None of the victims of the Central Park attacks were killed,” wrote attorneys for Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the lawsuit “just another frivolous election interference lawsuit” that he claimed was filed to “distract the American people from Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”

The men are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit also claims that Trump’s comments portrayed them in a false light and caused them to “suffer serious emotional distress.”

The group was pressured to make false confessions in the case. They were acquitted in 2002 when DNA evidence linked another person to the crime. The teens sued the city and the case was settled in 2014.

Trump has long been outspoken about the case, which rocked New York in the late 1980s, at a time when he was a leading figure in the city’s real estate and celebrity scenes. At the time, Trump took out full-page ads in several New York City newspapers that read in all caps: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

His comments last month came after Harris brought up the ad during a portion of the debate devoted to race and politics in the US.

“Let’s not forget that this is the same person who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five,” Harris said. “I took out a full-page ad calling for its implementation.”

One of the ads Trump bought was entered as evidence in the lawsuit.

The former president has tried to promote a tough-on-crime approach during his three bids for the White House, and comments in the debate underscored his willingness to invoke racially and politically charged criminal cases from American history in that effort.

Trump has remained critical of the case as he has entered politics in recent years. In October 2016, then-candidate Trump stood by his actions during the pendency of the case, telling CNN, “They admitted they were guilty.”

And in 2014, Trump wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News that New York City’s $41 million settlement with the five men was “a shame.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.