President Donald Trump on Monday dropped his lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register over a poll that showed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris leading in Iowa shortly before Election Day in November.
No explanation was provided by Trump’s lawyers in the filing in Iowa District Court in Polk County. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Trump in December sued Selzer; her polling firm, Selzer & Company; The Des Moines Register; and the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, on consumer fraud allegations over the poll showing Harris up by 3 percentage points in the state. Trump defeated Harris in Iowa 55.7% to 42.5% last year.
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Karl de Vries, a spokesperson for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit civil liberties group that is representing Selzer in the case, said in a statement that they were determining how to proceed.
“There is no settlement in the case. We are reviewing next steps as we continue to defend J. Ann Selzer’s First Amendment rights,” de Vries said.
Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for The Des Moines Register, said in a statement that Monday’s filing was “clearly intended to avoid the inevitable outcome of the Des Moines Register’s motion to dismiss President Trump’s amended complaint currently pending in federal court.”
“After losing his first attempt to send his case back to Iowa state court, and apparently recognizing that his appeal will be unsuccessful, President Trump is attempting to unilaterally dismiss his lawsuit from federal court and re-file it in Iowa state court,” Anton said. “The Des Moines Register will continue to resist President Trump’s litigation gamesmanship and believes that regardless of the forum it will be successful in defending its rights under the First Amendment.”
The newspaper previously said Trump’s lawsuit was “without merit” and acknowledged the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll “did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa.”
Trump has carried the state in the past three presidential contests, beating Hillary Clinton 51.7% to 42.2% in 2016 and besting Joe Biden 53.1% to 44.9% in 2020.
Trump’s lawsuit against Selzer and The Des Moines Register was one of many filed by the president over 2024 campaign coverage.
He filed a similar suit against Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, in which he accused “60 Minutes” of selectively editing an interview segment with Harris ahead of the election.
In a filing Monday, attorneys for Trump and Paramount asked the court for a pause in the proceedings for the $20 billion lawsuit, saying the parties “are engaged in good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations.”
