In a surprise move on Monday, attorneys for President Trump filed a motion in federal district court seeking to drop his lawsuit against pollster J. Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and others over the final Iowa Poll of the 2024 election. Trump filed his lawsuit in December against Selzer, her polling firm Selzer & Co., the Register and its parent company Gannett, claiming the Iowa Poll published three days before the Nov. 5 general election, which showed Kamala Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points among likely voters in Iowa, wasn’t just wrong, it was a deliberate attempt to interfere in the election and a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
After submitting the notice of withdrawal in federal court, Trump’s attorneys immediately refiled the lawsuit at the state level, in Polk County District Court. Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the Register, noted Trump’s new legal moves “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.”
SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” referring to meritless lawsuits designed to punish a person or organization for using their freedom under the First Amendment to address a public matter, or to intimidate them into not exercising their rights. An anti-SLAPP law makes it easier for a defendant to get such a lawsuit dismissed early in the legal process, saving them the expense and trouble normally associated with mounting a defense. After years of failing to do so, the Iowa Legislature finally passed an anti-SLAPP law during this year’s session.
The anti-SLAPP law only applies to lawsuits filed in state court after July 1. It does not apply to ongoing lawsuits, hence the need to refile their case before the end of day on Monday.
Trump originally filed his lawsuit in Polk County District Court in December, but attorneys for Gannett and the Register immediately responded by petitioning to have the case moved to federal court, citing the fact that Trump doesn’t live in Iowa and didn’t when the alleged harm created by the erroneous poll occurred. Since the plaintiff and the defendants are located in different jurisdictions, and Trump’s attorney had not yet served the defendants with copies of the complaint, the court granted that request.
In an attempt to have the case returned to state court, Trump filed an amended complaint on Jan. 31, adding Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former state senator Brad Zaun as plaintiffs. The two Iowa Republicans claimed they too have been injured by that Iowa Poll in a way that violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
In May, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger denied Trump’s request to amend his complaint and dismissed the addition of Miller-Meeks and Zaun as an attempt to game the system.
“Plaintiffs provide no legitimate rationale for Zaun and Miller-Meeks to join a federal lawsuit only to immediately move to remand,” Ebinger said in her decision. “Zaun and Miller-Meeks could have sued defendants in state court without fear of removal. Thus, the only apparent reason to have joined Trump’s lawsuit is to destroy diversity jurisdiction.”
Trump, Miller-Meeks and Zaun appealed Ebinger’s to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case currently remains. According to the response to Trump’s attempt to drop his federal case filed by attorneys for Gannett and the Register on Monday, that means “the case cannot be dismissed at the district court” because the court lacks the authority to do so “while appellate proceedings are ongoing.”
Federal court rules are clear, the Gannett/Register response states. Because the 8th Circuit has taken up the case, the only way the case could be dismissed is if the appeals court grants the petition, or through “a stipulation by all parties.” Trump filed his Notice of Voluntary Dismissal with the district court, not the appeals court, and the defendants do not agree to dismissing the case, so Trump can refile in state court.
“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 refile it in Iowa state court,” the Register’s Anton said in a statement. “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.”
Miller-Meeks and Zaun joined Trump in his motion seeking to have the federal case dismissed, and are listed on the new state filing, in an attempt to create an Iowa connection for the lawsuit. Neither Miller-Meeks nor Zaun has offered any evidence of being injured by the faulty Iowa Poll. Neither has Trump, even though it has been eight months since Trump first attacked Selzer and the Register over the poll.
Trump began alleging the poll was part of a conspiracy against him the day after it was published last November, telling a crowd at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania the Iowa Poll was “fake” and “corrupt,” and that polls like the Iowa Poll “should be illegal.” Trump said “my enemies” were behind the poll, but because of his somewhat incoherent speaking style, it was impossible to tell if he was referring to Selzer, the Register, both or someone else.
Trump, who went on to win Iowa by 13 percentage points, continued to make his allegations about the poll in the final days of the campaign, but never produced any evidence to support his conspiracy theory. All of the defendants in his lawsuit rejected his allegations as false.
During his first news conference after winning the Nov. 5 election, the then-president-elect claimed the Iowa Poll published on Nov. 2 showing Harris ahead wasn’t just wrong, it “was fraud and it was election interference.”
At the end of his rambling, repetitive and unsupported claims about Selzer and the Register, Trump told the reporters gathered at Mar-a-Lago for the Dec. 16 news conference, “we’ll be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow.” His attorneys filed the lawsuit in Polk County District Court that evening after the court had closed for the day.
Since winning the election last year, Trump has scored a couple of financially lucrative victories by filing or threatening to file lawsuits against media organizations, even though his complaints appear to be meritless or nearly so. None of these lawsuits have gone to trial, because the corporations that own the outlets settled, agreeing to make large payments to Trump, even though they almost certainly would have won in court. Given the president’s well-known vindictive personality and his willingness to use the powers of his office to punish opponents, it was considered too risky to fight Trump’s claim, no matter how unfounded.
According to Anton’s statement, Gannett will not be following the example of ABC/Disney or Meta and giving into Trump’s demands.
“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,” she said.
