Trump sues Gannett, Des Moines Register over Iowa election poll
By: Bart Jansen (The Des Moines Register)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Bart JansenUSA TODAY
President-elect Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and its parent company, Gannett Co. Inc., over its publication of a poll before the election that he called "fraud and election interference" for saying he trailed his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in Iowa.
The lawsuit filed on Monday in Polk County District Court asks for unspecified damages under the state's Consumer Fraud Act. It seeks "accountability for brazen election interference committed by" the newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer over the poll published Nov. 2 — three days before the voting was completed — that showed Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points in Iowa. Trump won the state by 13 percentage points.
The lawsuit also said the "egregious" polling miss in favor of Democrats came "just days before the most consequential election in memory," and that its results were apparently "leaked" because Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker mentioned the poll's findings during a meeting with Duke University alumni hours before the results were published.
"In my opinion, it was fraud and it was election interference," Trump told reporters Monday.
Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the Des Moines Register, said the company stands by its reporting and will vigorously defend the First Amendment.
"We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump's Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll's full demographics, crosstabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer," Anton said in a statement. "We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit."
Selzer told USA TODAY she had no comment on the lawsuit.
Gannett is also the parent company of USA TODAY.
Trump has sued media companies repeatedly with complaints about coverage of him. Some legal experts say Trump's comments and legal actions risk discouraging coverage of his incoming administration.
A federal judge dismissed Trump's $475 million lawsuit against CNN in July 2023 over the cable network referring to his description of election fraud in 2020 as a "big lie."
ABC News reached a $15 million settlement Dec. 14 with Trump over a George Stephanopoulos question to a House member in March about a lawsuit columnist E. Jean Carroll filed against Trump.
Stephanopoulos mischaracterized Trump as having been found liable for rape in a civil trial. A jury found him liable for sexual assault. Trump is appealing the verdict.
ABC issued a statement of regret and agreed to contribute the money to Trump's future presidential library.
Still pending is a $10 billion federal lawsuit against CBS News that Trump filed in October. The lawsuit alleged "election and voter interference" through the editing of an interview with Harris broadcast on "60 Minutes." The editing sought to "deceive, and mislead the public" to favor Harris, the lawsuit said.
CBS called the allegations "false" and said in a network statement "the interview was not doctored."
Trump: Lawsuits 'straighten out the press'
During his press conference Monday, Trump said of lawsuits against Gannett and CBS: "It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten out the press."
Trump had previously called for an investigation of Selzer.
"She's a very good pollster," Trump said Monday. "She knows what she was doing."
Selzer wrote in a November analysis — before the lawsuit was filed — that she was uncertain what caused the poll results.
"To cut to the chase, I found nothing to illuminate the miss," she wrote.
Iowa attorney part of Trump legal team in case
Representing Trump in the case are attorneys Edward Paltzik of New York and Alan Ostergren of Des Moines.
Paltzik is listed on his LinkedIn site as litigation director for the National Constitutional Law Union, a nonprofit that described itself on its website as "the answer to the useless and radically leftist American Civil Liberties Union."
Ostergren is the former Muscatine County attorney. In private practice since 2020, he has represented a variety of Iowa conservatives and conservative organizations in litigation over constitutional and election issues.
In the run-up to the 2020 election, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and other national groups hired Ostergren to intervene in a lawsuit over absentee ballot procedures, then to bring several more suits against counties he said were flouting the rules. He won both at the district and appeals court levels.
He also represented Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks that year in her successful bid to be certified as the elected U.S. representative for Iowa's 1st Congressional District after recounts and challenges to her six-vote victory.
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There is no chance Trump will win this suit. On the facts it is ludicrous. What he wants is to intimidate the press.
I made a seed yesterday saying Trump is threatening the freedom of the press. What else could you call a phony law suit against a media outlet filed by the incoming president of the United States ?
The message he is sending is that are consequences if the media publishes slanderous lies and misinformation about him. He is doing it now while he's a private citizen, not as president-elect. Very few people trust the press to tell the truth anymore, and that's not his fault.
An incorrect poll result is NOT slanderous lies and misinformation about him. That is complete and utter nonsense.
When he loses I certainly hope the Des Moines Register and Ganner bring a case against Trump for malicious prosecution, which this obviouly is. They could possibly also bring a counter-claim for defamation.
Trump will claim he has total immunity.
what slanderous lies ? what misinformation?
The methodology of the poll, which exists in writing, will be the defense. The fact that the poll was wrong has no bearing.
He doesn't have any immunity from civil actions.
I know that, but I doubt if Trump does.
He knows, but that won't stop him from lying about it.
Best line I saw about this -
Does this mean Hillary Clinton can sue the polls that showed her beating Trump in 2016? After all they may have effected turnout.
Nah, she was universally disliked....Comey kinda reminded people of that
So is trump. What's your point?
The best comment I saw about this situation is:
If she engaged in fraud to achieve the result, she should be liable. Or maybe she's just uniquely terrible at her job and somehow missed by 16 points.
The elements of a cause of action for fraud, with certain variations, are generally as follows:
1. Misrepresentation: The accused party must have made a false statement or misrepresented a material fact.
2. Intent: The misrepresentation was made intentionally, with the purpose of deceiving the victim.
3. Reliance: The victim reasonably relied on the misrepresentation to their detriment.
4. Damages: The victim suffered actual harm or financial loss as a result of the fraud.
Based on the above, how, in your best-reasoned legal opinion, would she be liable for fraud?
[deleted] [✘] start with the fact that is a claim under a specific Iowa statute, not a general suit for fraud.
Consumers rely on the Des Moines Register to provide an honest poll, which the Paper promotes. If Selzer manipulated the results and created a fraudulent poll result than they misled consumers and caused Trump to expend resources to deal with the fallout from the fraudulent poll, thus satisfying the requirements of the Iowa statute.
If you're referring to the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act-Private Actions, the statute expressly applies to "advertisement, sale or lease of consumer merchandise, or the solicitation of contributions for charitable purposes". The scenario you set forth does not fit within the parameters of that statute, even if Trump tries to pretend it does. If you are referring to a different statute, what is it?
In addition, the statute applies to actual damages suffered by consumers, not the damages you claim were supposedly sustained by Trump.