Donald Trump Sues Iowa Pollster and Iowa Newspaper 'The Des Moines Register' for "brazen election interference" and "fraud"

Donald Trump/Shutterstock

Donald Trump is reportedly suing an Iowa pollster, Ann Selzer, and the Iowa newspaper, The Des Moines Register, because Selzer published that Kamala Harris was three points ahead of him in the polls days before the election.

NBC News reports that Donald Trump will also sue Selser's polling firm, The Des Moines Register's parent company, Gannett, accusing them of consumer fraud.

The President-elect filed the lawsuit in Polk County, Iowa, Monday night for "brazen election interference." He explained, "I'm doing this because I feel I have an obligation to. I'm going to be bringing one against the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good pollster who got me right all the time, and then just before the election, she said I was going to lose by 3 or 4 points." Trump was reportedly 13 points ahead of Harris in Iowa upon his win.

The Des Moines Register responded to the lawsuit, stating, "We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump's Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll's full demographics, crosstabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer," the spokesperson, Lark-Marie Anton, said. "We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit."

Ann Selzer/X @jaselzer

Selzer worked as a pollster for the paper since 1987. She reportedly announced her retirement after this year's election.

Clay Calvert, a media law expert and professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, said "The true motivation is to intimidate the press and journalists. I unfortunately suspect this lawsuit is just a harbinger of things to come." He continued, "The odds of success here are slim to none, but winning in court is not likely the real goal of this lawsuit."

However, NBC reports that this is not Trump's first lawsuit about the recent election; they stated, "Trump secured a $15 million payout from ABC News, plus the payment of his lawyer's fees, totaling $1 million, in a defamation case over the weekend. Trump is also pursuing legal action against the Pulitzer Prize Board after it awarded prizes for stories about Russia and his 2016 campaign."

Trump will take office for the second time as the President of the United States on Jan. 20.

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