Could Trump Actually Triumph in Court Against J. Ann Selzer for Being Wrong About Iowa in ‘Willful and Wanton’ Poll?

President-elect Trump’s lawsuit against the newspaper publisher Gannett, the Des Moines Register, and Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer could at first seem as likely to prosper as suing a weatherman for being wrong about the rain — save for a Hawkeye State statute that could bolster the 47th president’s chances.The suit comes on the heels of Trump reaching a $15 million settlement with ABC News after star anchor George Stephanopoulos inaccurately claimed multiple times on his Sunday program, “This Week,” that Trump had been found liable for rape. A New York jury had found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse of the writer, E. Jean Carroll, but specifically determined that he was not liable for rape.The network will direct $15 million toward a charity or Trump’s presidential library. ABC also covered one million dollars in Trump’s legal fees. That settlement was driven by allegations of defamation. Trump’s suit against Ms. Selzer comes after she shocked the nation with a poll, issued days before Election Day, which showed Trump losing beet-red Iowa. Her poll predicted he’d lose Iowa by three points and also showed significant movement toward Vice President Harris. Ms. Selzer announced her departure from the Register, which she said was long in the works, after Trump won Iowa by 13 points.Trump, who was enraged by the poll, which he deems “election interference,” accuses the pollster, the Register, and Gannett, in papers filed in Iowa state court at Polk County, of violating Iowa’s consumer fraud laws by engaging in deception. Trump’s complaint alleges that Ms. Selzer’s “polling ‘miss’ was not an astonishing coincidence — it was intentional … While Selzer is not the only pollster to engage in this corrupt practice, she had a huge platform and following and, thus, a significant and impactful opportunity to deceive voters.” An assessment in 2019 determined that she was “the best pollster in politics.” Polling guru Nate Silver calls her “near-oracular.”At a news conference on Monday, Trump cited that record of achievement to argue for malign intent. He declares that “she’s gotten me right always, she’s a very good pollster, she knows what she was doing.” Ms. Selzer’s poll was released three days before the election. Ms. Selzer’s firm has launched a review to “raise any plausible question of what happened between Thursday night the previous week … and when the votes were tallied on Tuesday night.”The relevant section of the Iowa code mandates that a “person shall not engage in a practice or act the person knows or reasonably should know is an unfair practice, deception, fraud, false pretense, or false promise … with the intent that others rely upon the unfair practice, deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, concealment, suppression, or omission.”Trump seeks “accountability for brazen election interference” and contends that Ms. Selzer’s prediction of a victory for Ms. Harris was “Contrary to reality and defying credulity.” He alleges that “a three-point lead for Harris in Iowa was not reality, it was election-interfering fiction.” Trump won Iowa by eight points in 2020 and by more than nine in 2016.Ms. Selzer, who has long taken pride in being nonpartisan, asserted Friday, on PBS’s “Iowa Press,” that she took Trump’s claims “very seriously” but insisted that she is “mystified about what motivation anybody thinks I had and would act on in such a public poll.” She declared that “It’s not my ethic” to manipulate polls. Gannett’s chief communications officer, Lark-Marie Antón, insists that “We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit.” Iowa’s consumer fraud statute, on which Trump’s case depends, was enacted in 1999. Iowa was the last state in America to adopt a law specifically allowing consumers to sue for consumer fraud — whenever businesses engage in “unfair and deceptive business practices.” Trump alleges that Ms. Selzer’s poll “was no ‘miss’ but rather an attempt to influence the outcome” of the election.Trump argues that the poll was but the most glaring example of an intent “to paint an incorrect and cynical picture of the downward trajectory for President Trump in the face of a supposedly turbocharged Harris Campaign.” He ventures that “In truth, Harris’s hollow message of ‘joy’ was missing badly with voters.”Trump requests that Ms. Selzer be prevented “from publishing or releasing any further deceptive polls.” He also argues that because the alleged “conduct was willful and wanton, President Trump is also entitled” to treble damages. Ms. Selzer has disclosed that she will continue superintending her polling for corporate clients even after she retires from the Register. The Sun has sought comment from the relevant parties but had not heard back prior to deadline.

Could Trump Actually Triumph in Court Against J. Ann Selzer for Being Wrong About Iowa in ‘Willful and Wanton’ Poll?

More from the New York Sun

‘The Receptionist’ Returns to an Office Where Cheerfully Banal Chatter Proves Deceptive

‘Python Hunt’ Colorfully Explores Searching for Snakes in Florida

Despite Rocky Past, Trump and Lula Boast of Successful White House Meeting on Trade, Drug Trafficking

Unconditional Deadlines Should Be the Next Iranian Step

Beijing, Rather Than Islamabad, Is Driving Diplomacy To End Iran War

Stephen Breyer, One of America’s Liberal Lions, Emerges as Surprise Supporter of SCOTUS Shadow Docket

A Deep Dive Into Modern Masculinity in America

Appeals Circuits Split Over Rights of Aliens Who Are Here Illegally