Trump lands another legal victory as lawsuit against Iowa pollster, Des Moines Register remains in state court
FIRST ON FOX — President Donald Trump scored yet another legal victory Friday when the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit shut down Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer’s appeal, reinforcing that the president’s "election interference" lawsuit will now land in Iowa State Court.
Trump’s legal team has accused Selzer and The Des Moines Register of "brazen election interference" with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump originally requested the case be moved to Iowa State Court in May after the defendants "removed" the case to federal court. A federal judge denied the request at the time, but the Obama-appointed judge was overruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
Trump last month notched a key victory when the 8th Circuit granted Trump’s petition for a writ of mandamus — a rare judicial order used to correct clear legal errors — and directed a district judge to treat the case as dismissed "without prejudice," allowing Trump to refile the case. As a result, the case would be litigated in Iowa State Court.
The defendants petitioned the 8th Circuit for relief but were shut down.
"The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The petition for rehearing by the panel is denied," Clerk of Court Susan Bindler ruled.
Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), who represents Selzer, issued a statement.
"This procedural decision doesn't change what has been true from the beginning — this frivolous claim is entirely without substance and that fact ultimately will be borne out in court," Corn-Revere told Fox News Digital.
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A spokesman for Trump's legal team told Fox News Digital in a statement, "President Trump is committed to holding those who traffic in deception and fake news to account. The Des Moines Register and Gannett knowingly ran a phony poll from the now disgraced Democrat pollster Ann Selzer in an underhanded attempt to interfere in the election and defraud the country into believing Kamala Harris was winning the state of Iowa and nationwide, mere hours before she lost Iowa and the overall election by an overwhelming margin to President Trump.
"This scam was designed to damage President Trump’s dominant campaign in the final days of the race. Such fraud cannot be allowed to stand, and President Trump is committed to seeing this case through to a just, winning conclusion."
Lark-Marie Antón, a spokesperson for The Des Moines Register's parent company, Gannett, previously said the case belongs in federal court.
"We are assessing the court’s decision. Given the nature of the case and that it involves the president of the United States as a plaintiff, we continue to believe the federal courts are the most appropriate forum for this lawsuit. In the event the suit is heard by the state courts of Iowa, we have confidence the matter will be adjudicated fairly," Antón told Fox News Digital last month.
Gannett did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Selzer released her final Des Moines Register-sponsored poll showing Harris leading Trump by three points in Iowa just three days before the election. That shock poll showed a seven-point shift from Trump to Harris from September, when he had a four-point lead over the vice president in the same poll.
Selzer’s poll was hyped up by the media in the days leading up to the election as her polling predictions had been historically accurate. Many suggested it implied a monumental shift in Midwest support for Harris in a red state, but the poll turned out to be way off.
Trump thumped Harris in Iowa by more than 13 percentage points, the third straight time he'd won the state and the first time any candidate had won there by double digits since 1980.
Shortly after the election, Selzer announced she was done with election polling and moving on to "other ventures."
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Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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