Trump sues pollster, newspaper for ’brazen election interference’

Donald Trump has sued a pollster and newspaper over a pre-election survey that vastly underestimated his support.

Donald Trump has made attacks on the media a hallmark of his political identity. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump has sued a pollster and newspaper over a pre-election survey that vastly underestimated his support, a move decried by rights groups as part of a larger anti-press effort by the US president-elect.

Mr Trump’s lawsuit was filed on Monday in the central US state of Iowa, naming pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett defendants.

The suit revolves around a poll conducted by Ms Selzer that showed Mr Trump trailing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by three points in the state.

The poll, published days ­before the November 5 election, was a shock, given Mr Trump’s easy victories there in 2016 and 2020, and boosted Democratic hopes that other surveys showing an exceedingly tight race were actually over-estimating the Republican’s support.

Mr Trump went on to win Iowa by 13 points, dealing a blow to Ms Selzer’s reputation.

In his lawsuit, the president-elect accuses Ms Selzer and co-defendants of “brazen election interference”, and seeks unspecified damages under Iowa’s “unfair practices” law.

The poll was “just a piece of political theatre concocted by an individual – Selzer,” the suit ­alleges, saying she “should have known better than to poison the electorate with a poll that was nothing more than a work of ­fantasy”.

Ms Selzer’s office declined to comment.

Des Moines Register spokeswoman Lark-Marie Anton said the lawsuit was “without merit”.

The newspaper had already acknowledged the poll “did not reflect the ultimate margin of president Trump’s Election Day victory in Iowa”, she said.

Ms Anton said the organisation had previously released weighted and unweighted data behind the poll, among other ­information, and that Ms Selzer had published a “technical ­explanation”.

“We stand by our reporting on the matter,” she said.

The Knight First Amendment Institute, a group at ­Columbia University dedicated to promoting free speech rights, slammed the lawsuit as “part of a larger effort by president-elect Trump to prevent the press from reporting on issues of vital public interest”.

“This lawsuit is a non-starter under the First Amendment,” said Knight staff lawyer Anna Diakun.

“The court should dismiss it quickly.”

RIck Hasen, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, similarly wrote on his Election Law blog that he did not “expect this lawsuit to go anywhere” because of US free speech protections.

The Iowa lawsuit comes just days after ABC News settled claims by Mr Trump of defamation, in which the outlet agreed to pay $US15m ($23.7m) to a future presidential museum and foundation, and an extra $US1m for Mr Trump’s legal fees.

ABC News faced criticism over settling the case, which ­revolved around language used while reporting sexual assault ­allegations against Mr Trump, with several legal scholars arguing that the outlet would have been likely to have prevailed in court.

Mr Trump has made attacks on the media a hallmark of his political identity since his rise to power, recently describing the press as “bloodsuckers” and “corrupt”.

On Monday, he said he planned to launch more proceedings against media outlets, including CBS News’s 60 Minutes, which he accused of manipulating an interview with Kamala Harris to support her candidacy.

AFP