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President Trump sued by parents of children in manipulated 'racist baby' video

The parents are also suing a Trump meme-maker for his role in creating the edited video.

Editor's note: The video above was originally published on Sept. 10, 2019.

The parents of two toddlers who appeared in a doctored video shared by President Donald Trump on Twitter in June are suing the president, his campaign and the creator of the video.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday to the New York Supreme Court, it alleges that Trump meme-maker Logan Cook "manipulated and adulterated" a video of the plaintiff's children without their written consent. The plaintiffs are Michael Cisneros, Alex Hanson, Erica McKenna, and Daniel McKenna, 

The video in question is still available on YouTube and a tweet from Trump in June shows the two toddlers -- one Black and one white -- running down a sidewalk to greet each other. The video of the boys, who are best friends, included a faked CNN graphic that implied the Black child was running from a "racist baby" who was "probably a Trump voter." 

A lower-third graphic says, "BREAKING NEWS: TERRIFIED TODLER RUNS FROM RACIST BABY." The word toddler was misspelled. It switches to say, "RACIST BABY PROBABLY A TRUMP VOTER."

The font and graphic background does not match what appears daily on CNN.

The video switches to say "What actually happened." It shows the two children running toward each other and hugging, then running down the street.

"America is not the problem. Fake News is," the video goes on to read. "If you see something, say something. Only you can prevent fake news dumpster fires."

The original video of the children in New York City became a viral sensation in September 2019. The father of one of the boys told WPIX the kids -- Maxwell and Finnegan -- had been best friends for more than a year.

Credit: Boy Meets Girl
Finnegan McKenna and Maxwell Hanson wear facemasks as they sport T-shirts for the "Together We Stand" campaign.

RELATED: Toddler best friends in viral video tabbed for anti-racism campaign

RELATED: Twitter removes Trump video of Black toddler chased by white 'racist baby'

The video was eventually removed by both Facebook and Twitter for violating a copyright claim. 

Cook, who operated the Twitter account Carpe Donktum, was permanently banned by Twitter after the incident. 

In the lawsuit, the parents allege Cook created the video with "reckless disregard of the true nature of the original video." The parents also accuse Trump and Cook of seeking donations to his re-election campaign by using the manipulated video.

In a statement posted to Instagram, Cook said he will seek compensation for his now suspended Carpe Donktum Twitter account.

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