President-elect Donald Trump ripped convicted murderer and former stripper Crystal Mangum for lying about being raped by a trio of Duke lacrosse players, saying she “destroyed” their lives.
“Woman admits to totally fabricating accusations in the horrible Duke Lacrosse Case,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“She destroyed the lives of these young men.”
Mangum is currently serving a 14-year sentence at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women for the 2011 fatal stabbing of her boyfriend.
She publicly admitted Thursday for the first time that she fabricated the explosive 2006 story that Duke students David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann raped her while the exotic dancer was performing at a team party because she “wanted validation from people and not from God.”
“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong,” Mangum, 46, told the independent outlet Let’s Talk With Kat.
The three players were arrested, with the case quickly capturing the national spotlight and stoking racial tensions after former Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong railed in a CBS News interview that “there’s no doubt a sexual assault took place” and that the assault was “racially motivated.”
Nifong claimed DNA tests would prove the players’ guilt in raping Mangum, but walked back his statements after the results came back negative.
Former Duke University president Richard Brodhead meanwhile punished the team over the false allegations. In addition to accepting then-head men’s lacrosse coach Mike Pressler’s resignation, Brodhead canceled the rest of the team’s season and suspended the three players from the university after they were indicted for rape.
The three players were all found innocent and the charges were dismissed in April 2007.
Mangum cannot be legally punished for lying, since North Carolina’s statute of limitations for perjury is two years.