Trump dodges Obama judge with smart move as case shifts to Iowa court
Danny Karon, a lawyer and author, details the ongoing case of President Donald Trump and The Des Moines Register.
FIRST ON FOX — President Donald Trump scored yet another legal victory Friday when the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit shut down Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer’s appeal, reinforcing that the president’s "election interference" lawsuit will now land in Iowa State Court.
Trump’s legal team has accused Selzer and The Des Moines Register of "brazen election interference" with their final 2024 Iowa presidential poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris.
Trump 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.
President Donald Trump scored yet another legal victory Friday when the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit shut down Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer’s appeal, reinforcing that the president’s "election interference" lawsuit will now land in Iowa State Court. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump last month notched a key victory when 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. As a result, the case would be litigated in Iowa State Court.
The defendants petitioned the 8th Circuit for relief but were shut down.
"The petition for rehearing en banc is denied. The petition for rehearing by the panel is denied," Clerk of Court Susan Bindler ruled.
Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), who represents Selzer, issued a statement.
"This procedural decision doesn't change what has been true from the beginning — this frivolous claim is entirely without substance and that fact ultimately will be borne out in court," Corn-Revere told Fox News Digital.
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President Donald Trump, seen here at the America250 rally in Des Moines, successfully got his lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and The Des Moines Register to land in Iowa State Court. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A spokesman for Trump's legal team told Fox News Digital in a statement, "President Trump is committed to holding those who traffic in deception and fake news to account. The Des Moines Register and Gannett knowingly ran a phony poll from the now disgraced Democrat pollster Ann Selzer in an underhanded attempt to interfere in the election and defraud the country into believing Kamala Harris was winning the state of Iowa and nationwide, mere hours before she lost Iowa and the overall election by an overwhelming margin to President Trump.
"This scam was designed to damage President Trump’s dominant campaign in the final days of the race. Such fraud cannot be allowed to stand, and President Trump is committed to seeing this case through to a just, winning conclusion."
Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA TODAY Co. Chief Legal Officer, told Fox News Digital in a statement Friday: "Although we are disappointed that the appellate court has allowed President Trump to avoid the inevitable dismissal of his complaint in Federal Court, running away to state court will not change the outcome of this meritless case. We are confident that the Iowa state court will come to the same conclusion as Judge Ebinger in the copycat Donnelly case and dismiss President Trump's claims, and those of Representative Miller Meeks and state representative Zaun, with prejudice. USA TODAY Co. will continue to vigorously defend The Register's reporting, which is protected under the First Amendment."
Pollster J. Ann Selzer came under fire after releasing a poll claiming candidate Kamala Harris was leading Trump in Iowa ahead of the 2024 election. (Getty Images/ The Bulwark Podcast via YouTube screenshot)
Selzer released her final Des Moines Register-sponsored poll showing Harris leading Trump by three points in Iowa just three days before the election. That shock poll showed a seven-point shift from Trump to Harris from September, when he had a four-point lead over the vice president in the same poll.
Selzer’s poll was hyped up by the media in the days leading up to the election as her polling predictions had been historically accurate. Many suggested it implied a monumental shift in Midwest support for Harris in a red state, but the poll turned out to be way off.
Trump thumped Harris in Iowa by more than 13 percentage points, the third straight time he'd won the state and the first time any candidate had won there by double digits since 1980.
Shortly after the election, Selzer announced she was done with election polling and moving on to "other ventures."
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Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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