DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president’s claim that the newspaper’s poll coverage violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law.
Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its “faulty” claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that “can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.” 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.
The ruling Wednesday came hours after a judge heard arguments but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Trump banned the three outlets last Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.”
After the ruling in Iowa Wednesday, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president will take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Trump filed the lawsuit against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s 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.
Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations 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.
Selzer’s 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 “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”
“Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome,” Selzer said in a statement.
Selzer’s attorneys at FIRE and her co-defendants also celebrated the ruling.
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