{"id":355411,"date":"2026-09-24T05:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T05:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355411\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T05:24:14","slug":"iowa-judge-dismisses-trumps-lawsuit-against-des-moines-register-and-pollster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355411\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa judge dismisses Trump\u2019s lawsuit against Des Moines Register and pollster"},"content":{"rendered":"

By HANNAH FINGERHUT<\/p>\n

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) \u2014 A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president\u2019s claim that the newspaper\u2019s poll coverage violated Iowa\u2019s consumer fraud law.<\/p>\n

Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its \u201cfaulty\u201d claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that \u201ccan discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.\u201d He sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the newspaper in affirming that the poll and coverage of it were constitutionally protected political speech, not a commercial product.<\/p>\n

The ruling Wednesday came hours after a judge heard arguments but did not rule<\/a> from the bench in a case on Trump\u2019s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Trump banned the three outlets last Friday, assailing what he called \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the ruling in Iowa Wednesday, a spokesman for Trump\u2019s legal team said the president will take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Trump filed the lawsuit<\/a> against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper\u2019s parent company in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results to damage him and help Democrats, saying coverage of polls is not protected speech.<\/p>\n

Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations<\/a> accusing them of bias, calling into question the boundaries of free speech protections, particularly for the press. Some of those lawsuits have ended in settlements.<\/p>\n

Selzer\u2019s case was taken up by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She said Wednesday she was grateful for the ruling, which \u201creaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPolling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome,\u201d Selzer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Selzer\u2019s attorneys at FIRE and her co-defendants also celebrated the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a victory for the First Amendment \u2014 and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy,\u201d Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA Today Co. chief legal counsel, said in a statement. USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett, owns The Register.<\/p>\n

In dismissing the case, Beattie wrote that Trump\u2019s lawsuit sought to \u201cstretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.\u201d After hearing the arguments, the judge concluded the constitutional protection \u201cis too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beattie said the case would have to be dismissed even if, solely for the purpose of deciding the motions, he accepted the Trump team\u2019s allegations that the poll was intentionally skewed and its results fabricated. \u201cEven with this assumption, each of the three counts still fails,\u201d the judge wrote, because the lawsuit did not meet the legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception.<\/p>\n

The poll, conducted by Selzer\u2019s company in the final days of October and released just days before Election Day 2024, showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats\u2019 presidential nominee, capturing 47% of Iowa likely voters, to Trump\u2019s 44%. Trump ultimately won the support of 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, both Republicans, had joined Trump\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Trump, Miller-Meeks and Zaun alleged the misleading coverage diminished their reputations, valuable time in the final days of the campaign, and campaign funds and resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By HANNAH FINGERHUT DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) \u2014 A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit accusing The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[132429,5351,132430,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-355411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-des-moines-register","tag-iowa","tag-j-ann-selzer","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}