Donald Trump slams 'disgraceful' $40M settlement for Central Park 5

In a scathing attack on the $40 million settlement handed down to the Central Park 5 - at the expense of taxpayers - Donald Trump has called the payout a 'disgraceful' and 'ridiculous' result owing to the 'incompetence' of the New York City justice system.

Writing an opinion piece for The New York Daily News on Saturday, the real estate mogul - who has long advocated the five then-teenagers receive the death penalty for the brutal rape and bashing of an investment banker in Central Park in 1989 - said that even though the men had been exonerated, the $40 million settlement was overblown.

'Forty million dollars is a lot of money for the taxpayers of New York to pay when we are already the highest taxed city and state in the country,' he wrote in the paper.

'The recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city ... These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels.'

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