From Fox News: President Donald Trump notched a legal victory Friday in his lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register, and the case will now land in Iowa State Court after an appeals court sided with the president and ruled a lower court had overstepped.
Trump’s legal team, which has accused the defendants of “brazen election interference” with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris, 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.
In a sharply worded opinion, 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.
Just 3 days prior to the November 2024 election, Selzer had released a Des Moines Register-sponsored poll showing Harris leading Trump by three points in Iowa, when a September poll had showed Trump with a 4-point lead.
The media then heavily pushed Selzer’s poll ahead of the election, claiming a monumental shift was taking place in the Midwest.
In fact, Trump defeated Harris in Iowa by a whopping 13 percentage points.
Selzer still has the tweet up on her X page, in when she promoted the bogus poll on November 2, claiming that “Kamala Harris leapfrogs Donald Trump to take the lead near Election Day.”
Iowa Poll: Kamala Harris leapfrogs Donald Trump to take lead near Election Day. Here’s how https://t.co/4767zdTjyL via @DMRegister
— J. Ann Selzer (@jaselzer) November 2, 2024
Trump’s legal team released the following statement Friday night:
“Today’s just and appropriate ruling by the 8th Circuit ensures that President Trump’s powerhouse case focused on the fake election interfering polls conducted and denominated by J. Ann Selzer, The Des Moines Register and its corporate owner Gannett will be litigated in Iowa State Court where it belongs.
“These defendants have repeatedly engaged in unlawful gamesmanship to avoid State Court, and that ends today,” the spokesman continued. “President Trump will continue to hold those who traffic in fake news, lies and smears to account.”
Trump scores key legal victory https://t.co/uRQ4GT2PV2
— Brian Flood (@briansflood) October 25, 2025
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