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Amy Klobuchar’s Campaign Vows to Return Donation From Central Park Five Prosecutor Linda Fairstein

The campaign said it shouldn't have accepted the donation months after they received the money.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) presidential campaign has said it will return a donation from Linda Fairstein, the controversial sex-crimes prosecutor involved in the Central Park Five case. According to The Guardian, Fairstein donated $1,000 to Klobuchar’s campaign in March 2019—before the former prosecutor was widely condemned by the public upon the release of a Netflix movie, When They See Us, about the infamous 1989 rape case. The campaign told The Daily Beast they would be returning the funds hours after The Guardian published its report. “The campaign shouldn’t have accepted this contribution and we’re returning it,” a campaign spokesperson said.

At the time of the case—in which five black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully accused of raping a woman in Central Park—Fairstein was the head of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit. A convicted serial rapist and murderer who later confessed to the crime was able to commit other offenses while the five teens were jailed. The men were eventually awarded a $41 million settlement from New York City, but prosecutors have not admitted to any wrongdoing.