Donald Trump has dropped his federal lawsuit against famed Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s publisher Gannett, over Selzer’s survey that found Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with a surprising lead over Trump in the Hawkeye State during the final days of the 2024 election.
The president’s complaint accused the Register of “brazen election interference” and violations of consumer protections and was filed just days after ABC News reached a $15 million settlement with Trump in his defamation suit over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The poll by Selzer shockingly found Harris with a three-point lead in the reliably red state, suggesting that the 2024 election could swing in the democrats’ favor. In the end, however, Trump won the state by 13 points, representing an embarrassing 16-point error for the legendary pollster – who would later announce her retirement.
A notice of dismissal was filed in the federal Southern District of Iowa by attorneys for the president and GOP lawmakers who later joined the complaint on Monday, explaining that the plaintiffs were dropping the case “without prejudice.” Besides the president, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) and Bradley Zaun — an Iowa state senator who lost his 2024 race — were part of the lawsuit.
Shortly after the federal case was voluntarily dismissed by the president’s legal team, however, a similar complaint was filed in the Iowa district court of Polk County. The federal judge had repeatedly denied Trump’s lawyers' requests to move the lawsuit out of federal court, which also saw efforts to add Miller-Meeks and Zaun to the complaint rejected.
A lawyer for Selzer, meanwhile, said that no money was paid to the president to drop the suit. “There is no settlement in this case,” attorney Robert Corn-Revere stated. “We are reviewing next steps as we continue to defend J. Ann Selzer’s First Amendment rights.”
The Independent has reached out to the legal teams for the defendants and plaintiffs for comment.
Initially framing the lawsuit as a consumer fraud case, the president’s legal team argued that Selzer’s survey created a “false narrative of inevitability” for Harris and was an effort to artificially boost her chances of winning. Claiming that Trump’s victory was “an overwhelming mandate for his America First principles, and the consignment of the radical socialist agenda to the dustbin of history,” the president’s attorneys wrote that the survey in “deep-red Iowa was not reality, it was election-interfering fiction.”
Selzer, who was represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the Register and Gannett asked a federal judge in February to dismiss the president's lawsuit, calling Trump’s claims that the poll was fraudulent legally deficient, “even if the First Amendment did not bar Plaintiffs' claims.” The defendants also described Trump as a “sore winner” who was seeking to punish the newspaper for “whatever he may deem ‘fake news.’”
After the judge denied Trump’s motion to move the case back to Iowa state court, and rejected his effort to add Miller-Meeks and Zaun to the lawsuit, the president’s attorneys appealed the order keeping the complaint in federal court earlier this month.
“After losing his first attempt to send his case back to Iowa state court, and apparently recognizing that his appeal will be unsuccessful, President Trump is attempting to unilaterally dismiss his lawsuit from federal court and re-file it in Iowa state court,” Des Moines Register spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton said in a statement on Monday. “Although such a procedural maneuver is improper, and may not be permitted by the Court, it is clearly intended to avoid the inevitable outcome of the Des Moines Register’s motion to dismiss President Trump’s amended complaint currently pending in federal court.”
Anton continued: “Unsurprisingly, President Trump’s continued retreat from federal court has occurred the day before Iowa’s newly enacted anti-SLAPP statute becomes effective and would provide the Des Moines Register with broad protection for news reporting on matters of public interest. The Des Moines Register will continue to resist President Trump’s litigation gamesmanship and believes that regardless of the forum it will be successful in defending its rights under the First Amendment.”
The withdrawal comes as the president’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Harris, which legal experts have said is frivolous and without merit, is speeding to a likely settlement as the network’s parent company Paramount is looking to complete a merger that requires the Trump administration’s approval.
The president has asserted that the editing of the interview was akin to election interference and caused him “mental anguish,” despite the fact that he defeated the former vice president weeks after she sat down with the CBS newsmagazine. Executives for Paramount, which is attempting to close an $8 billion deal to merge with Skydance Media, have expressed concerns that a settlement with the president could expose the company to civil and criminal bribery allegations — something Democratic lawmakers and free press groups have explicitly warned them about.
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