President-elect Donald Trump sued The Des Moines Register and its former pollster J. Ann Selzer on Monday for election interference, according to Fox News.
Selzer released a poll on November 1 showing Kamala Harris beating Trump in Iowa by 3 points. This poll was considered an outlier as another poll released the same day by Emerson showed Trump winning the state by 10 points.
Both of these polls were wrong, as Trump won the Hawkeye State by 13 points.
According to Fox News, Trump’s attorney said that Selzer’s poll was “not reality” and “election-interfering fiction.”
Furthermore, the president-elect’s attorney said she “prided herself on a mainstream reputation for accuracy despite several far less publicized egregious polling misses in favor of Democrats.”
Also, Selzer “would have the public believe it was merely a coincidence that one of the worst polling misses of her career came just days before the most consequential election in memory, was leaked and happened to go against the Republican candidate.”
“While Selzer is not the only pollster to engage in this corrupt practice, she had a huge platform and following and, thus, a significant and impactful opportunity to deceive voters,” the lawsuit states, according to Fox News. “As Selzer knows, this type of manipulation creates a narrative of inevitability for Democrat candidates, increases enthusiasm among Democrats, compels Republicans to divert campaign time and money to areas in which they are ahead, and deceives the public into believing that Democrat candidates are performing better than they really are.”
Fox News reported Trump is filing this lawsuit under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act because the release of the poll “caused substantial, unavoidable injury to consumers that was not outweighed by any consumer or competitive benefits which the practice produced.”
This poll ended up being the final poll Selzer released as she retired after the election.
This lawsuit comes after ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Trump to settle his defamation suit against the network.
Gannett, who is the parent company of The Des Moines Register, is also named on the lawsuit and released a statement following the Trump lawsuit.
Lark-Marie Anton, a Gannett spokesperson, said the company had acknowledged the “poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa.”
However, Anton said the company stands by its reporting. She added that Gannett believes this lawsuit is without merit,” according to The Hill.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
