DES MOINES, Iowa — President-elect Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, parent company Gannett and pollster J. Ann Selzer, alleging they committed "brazen election interference" in publishing a "leaked and manipulated" Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll in November.
The results of the Iowa Poll were published three days before Election Day, showing Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa by three points.
The poll received nationwide media coverage, largely due to Selzer's previous polling record and perceived credibility. However, Trump ultimately won the state by over thirteen points.
Both Selzer and the Register have addressed the disparities between the poll and the actual results. In an interview on Iowa Press, Selzer claimed she still had no idea what went wrong, saying, "We've explored everything."
However, court documents obtained by Local 5 allege Selzer and the Register were intentionally attempting to influence the election.
"A three-point lead for Harris in deep-red Iowa was not reality, it was election-interfering fiction," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit claims the defendants were working in conjunction with the Democratic Party to "create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris." Lawyers for Trump also state the poll was intentionally leaked to "Democratic operatives" before the Register article was even published.
"It is indeed no coincidence that Defendants' most significant polling 'miss' also happened to be the one that would be leaked to cause as much harm to the electoral process as possible--and one that induced the legacy media to go 'all in' and treat the Harris Poll as a 'canary in the coal mine' for President Trump," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also notes Selzer's polling allegedly favored Democrats in other Iowa races, including in Iowa's 1st Congressional District and Iowa's 3rd Congressional District. The Republicans won in both races, despite Selzer's poll being off by 16 points and 11 points, respectively.
"The odds of a pollster with the experience and track record of Selzer innocently missing the presidential race, the 1st District race, and the 3rd District race by sixteen points, sixteen points, and eleven points, respectively, and favoring the Democrat candidates with all three 'misses,' are outside any reasonable range of error ... This is proof of intentional wrongdoing."
As such, lawyers for Trump claim Selzer, the Register and Gannett all violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act by misleading consumers.
"Consumers, including Plaintiff, were badly deceived and misled as to the actual position of the respective candidates in the Iowa Presidential race," the lawsuit states. "Moreover, President Trump, the Trump 2024 Campaign, and other Republicans were forced to divert enormous campaign and financial resources to Iowa based on the deceptive Harris Poll."
Trump is seeking a jury trial in the case, asking to be paid damages and receive information from the Register related to how they conducted the Iowa Poll.
The Consumer Fraud Act was signed into law in 2009.
"Defendants engaged in an 'unfair act or practice' because the publication and release of the Harris Poll 'cause[d] substantial, unavoidable injury to consumers that [was] not outweighed by any consumer or competitive benefits which the practice produced,'" the lawsuit claims.
Local 5 reached out to Selzer for comment on the lawsuit. As of Tuesday morning, Selzer said she has not seen any legal documents and therefore has no comment.
Lark-Marie Anton, a Des Moines Reigster spokesperson , issued the following statement:
"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. We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit.”
Selzer announced after the election that she would retire from political polling.
This is a developing story and will be updated.