Trump sues “Des Moines Register” newspaper for alleged “Election interference”. Media News

The US president-elect’s lawsuit comes days after he settled with ABC News over defamation.

US President-elect Donald Trump has sued a newspaper and a polling firm, accusing them of “brazen election interference” by publishing a pre-election poll. did not underestimate its popularity.

A lawsuit filed late Monday accuses The Des Moines Register, its parent company, Gannett, and pollster Ann Selzer of intentionally downplaying Trump’s support in a poll that showed him trailing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

A Nov. 2 poll showing Harris leading by three percentage points in Iowa drew widespread attention as Trump easily carried the midwestern state in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Trump won last month’s presidential election in Iowa by more than 13 percent.

The lawsuit, filed in Polk County, Iowa, says: “Selzer’s choice of ‘miss’ in the poll was not an amazing coincidence – it was intentional.” “As President Trump observed: ‘He knew exactly what he was doing.’

The suit, which bases its claims on alleged violations of Iowa’s consumer fraud statute, seeks treble damages as determined by a jury.

Lark-Marie Anton, a spokeswoman for The Des Moines Register, said the newspaper stands by the story and considers the allegation baseless.

“We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-poll poll contains the complete demographics, cross-tabulations, weighted and unweighted data, as well as technical Pollster Ann Selzer’s explanation,” Anton said.

Selzer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in an interview with PBS last week that he wondered why anyone would think he was framing the poll to achieve a certain result.

Trump’s claim comes days later ABC News agreed he took on presenter George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate claim that he was civilly liable for rape.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a civil liberties organization, condemned the lawsuit as a “direct attack” on the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees free speech.

“If newspapers and polling firms are sued for ‘deceptive practices’ for publishing news and polls that politicians don’t like, the First Amendment rights of every media outlet are threatened. Voting is not election interference or fraud,” the group said.

So is Trump sued CBS News The interview with Harris, which he claims was fraudulently redacted, faces serious legal obstacles to winning his claims, thanks to the United States’ speech protections, which are among the strongest in the world.

However, suits can create challenges for news organizations by exposing potentially embarrassing internal communications and exposing journalists and executives to depositions.