A federal judge has rejected President Donald Trump 's effort to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against him filed by the men formerly known as the Central Park Five who were exonerated after spending more than a decade in prison for the 1989 rape and beating of a woman who was jogging.

A federal judge denied President Donald Trump’s request to dismiss a lawsuit over comments he made last year about five men who were wrongly convicted in the 1989 jogger rape case and came to be known as the “Central Park Five.

Trump's lawyer called the lawsuit "baseless" and "yet another unfounded and meritless attack" against the 47th president.