Judge Throws Out Trump Lawsuit Over Wayward 2024 Poll In Iowa

President Donald Trump’s drive to seek legal retribution for a seemingly inaccurate poll published by the Des Moines Register in the home stretch of the 2024 election race suffered a major setback Wednesday.

The state court judge overseeing Trump’s lawsuit threw the case out in its entirety, saying that allowing it to continue posed a threat to the robust debate the nation needs about its elections and candidates.

“Allowing a legally faulty claim like this to proceed carries a cost that an ordinary case does not, because defending it can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs,” Judge Scott Beattie wrote in a 64-page decision. “Erroneous statements are inevitable in free debate and must be protected if the freedoms of expression are to have the breathing space they need to survive.”

The poll, released three days before the 2024 general election vote, showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa, 47% to 44%. Trump ultimately won the state, 56% to 43%.

Both before and after Election Day, Trump denounced the poll as not only inaccurate but deliberately slanted to disparage him and demoralize his voters. In December 2024, weeks after Americans voted to return him to the White House, Trump filed suit against the newspaper, its parent company Gannett and longtime pollster Ann Selzer.

The lawsuit did not claim that the poll defamed Trump, but instead sought damages for a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. In an apparent attempt to avoid the hurdles confronting libel plaintiffs, Trump’s suit described the poll as a defective product.

But Beattie disagreed.

“Simply labeling the poll a product does not change the analysis,” the judge wrote. “The fact that someone was paid to conduct the poll does not transform it from speech into a product. ... The rights protected by the First Amendment are not a word game.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the president plans to take his legal fight to Iowa’s highest court.

“President Trump is committed to holding responsible those who traffic in deception and fake news,” the statement said. “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 will take his powerful case to the Iowa Supreme Court in order to see it through to a just and winning conclusion.”

The newspaper’s owners, now called USA Today Co., hailed the judge’s decision.

“Today is a victory for the First Amendment — and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy,” said Polly Grunfeld Sack. chief legal counsel at USA Today Co. “We are gratified that the Court recognized what this meritless lawsuit sought to obscure: that claims of ‘fake news’ are little more than an attempt to punish news outlets for coverage those in power do not like. This decision reaffirms the enduring First Amendment principles that empower journalists and sends a message to those who think they can intimidate the press through legal action.”

“We’re pleased that the court recognized what we’ve said all along: This lawsuit was laughable from the beginning and never should have been brought,” FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere, who led Selzer’s defense, added. “The First Amendment does not allow anyone in government, least of all the president, to punish people under the banner of ‘fake news.’ That may work for [Trump] as a campaign slogan, but it is not a thing in the law.”

A similar suit filed as a class-action by Trump supporters who subscribe to the Des Moines Register was thrown out by a federal judge in November. The appeal in that case was heard Tuesday by a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, but no immediate ruling was issued.