President Trump has withdrawn a lawsuit against an Iowa pollster, Ann Selzer, and the Des Moines Register over a survey published in the final days of the 2024 election suggesting that the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Harris, held a healthy lead over the president.
According to documents filed in federal court on Monday, Mr. Trump’s legal team, joined by a Republican congresswoman, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and a former state senator, Bradley Zaun, dropped the case “without prejudice,” meaning it could theoretically be refiled at a later date.
The original complaint centered around a pre-election poll conducted by Ms. Selzer showing Ms. Harris with a three-point lead in Iowa. Mr. Trump accused Ms. Selzer and the newspaper of “brazen election interference” for publishing the poll, citing the survey results as misleading and damaging.
The poll turned out to be wrong. Mr. Trump went on to win Iowa by a commanding 13-point margin, a 16-point error for the pollster. The discrepancy led to heated debates about polling accuracy, particularly as Ms. Selzer — who has since retired — was regarded as one of the nation’s most reliable pollsters.
Despite Mr. Trump’s decisive victory, he filed the lawsuit in December 2024 alleging that the poll was part of a broader Democratic strategy to undermine his campaign. According to the complaint, the poll created a “false narrative of inevitability” for Ms. Harris and was characterized as an “unfair act or practice” under Iowa’s consumer fraud law.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers also said the erroneous poll “caused substantial, unavoidable injury to consumers that was not outweighed by any consumer or competitive benefits which the practice produced.”
“Defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election. Instead, the November 5 Election was a monumental victory for President Trump in both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote, an overwhelming mandate for his America First principles, and the consignment of the radical socialist agenda to the dustbin of history,” attorneys for Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump’s legal team argued that Ms. Selzer’s poll constituted “fake news” designed to interfere with the election. However, Ms. Selzer’s attorneys, supported by the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, countered with a defense rooted in First Amendment protections. Lead counsel Robert Corn-Revere called the lawsuit “about as unconstitutional as it gets,” describing it as a transparent effort to intimidate the press and suppress unfavorable reporting.
A motion to dismiss filed by Ms. Selzer’s legal team in February disputed the lawsuit’s claims, stating they were “fatally flawed on every level.” The filing cited extensive precedent upholding free press rights and highlighted the broader implications of such lawsuits for journalistic independence.
Despite speculation, there was no settlement in the works between Ms. Selzer and Mr. Trump. National Public Radio’s investigative correspondent, Tom Dreisbach, citing Ms. Selzer’s legal counsel, reported that Monday’s dismissal did not involve any payment or conditions.
The dismissal of the case comes as Mr. Trump pursues his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News over a contentious “60 Minutes” interview with Ms. Harris. There have been rumors of a potential settlement as CBS’s parent company, Paramount, navigates a merger that requires federal approval.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
