'Fatally flawed': Legendary Iowa pollster smacks down Trump’s 'outlandish' lawsuit



Even though he had already won the 2024 election, President Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and celebrated political pollster J. Ann Selzer in December over a poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly winning Iowa, claiming. Now, Selzer is fighting back.

On Friday, New York Times reporter David Enrich tweeted excerpts of Selzer's new 33-page filing in the case, in which she argued Trump's lawsuit should be thrown out on First Amendment grounds. The pollster argued that the president's claim of her poll being "fake news" had no legal or factual basis.

"In the United States there is no such thing as a claim for 'fraudulent news.' No court in any jurisdiction has ever held such a cause of action might be valid, and few plaintiffs have ever attempted to bring such outlandish claims," Selzer's attorneys argued. "Those who have were promptly dismissed."

READ MORE: 'Open season': Experts slam Trump's 'disgusting' lawsuit against Iowa newspaper and pollster

Selzer went on to say that while the term "fake news" may "play well for some on the campaign trail," it "has no place in America's constitutional jurisprudence." She further argued that even if the term had meaning in the legal realm, Trump's particular complaint is "fatally flawed on every level."

"Plaintiffs fail at the threshold to allege any recoverable damages, and no not state plausible claims, either on the law or on the facts has alleged," the filing read. "No court has ever accepted claims like these, and this Court should not be the first."

The pollster took pride in her work, noting that she has been the Register's de facto pollster for roughly four decades. The filing observed that Selzer has been described as "the best pollster in politics" by political poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, been given an A+ rating by political analyst Nate Silver and is "regarded as the gold standard nationally and in Iowa." While she acknowledged that her poll showing Harris winning the Hawkeye State was an "outlier," she stood by her work and said that her prior polls had shown Trump in the lead (Trump ultimately won Iowa with 56% of the vote).

In his initial lawsuit, Trump argued that Selzer and the Register violated a consumer fraud law in Iowa that penalizes businesses that make false claims. Puck News' Tara Palmieri called the Trump legal team's interpretation of that law "extremely aggressive." Selzer is asking the court to dismiss Trump's complaint "with prejudice," meaning it can't be re-introduced in the future.

READ MORE: 'Off-the-charts bonkers': Trump draws brutal mockery for suing Brazilian judge

Click here to read Selzer's full filing.



from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/RQAcL4f
via sinceretalk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PA GOP Senate candidate who says he 'started with nothing' actually grew up in a mansion

Image
David McCormick, who is Pennsylvania's presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, has often suggested he grew up poor in a rural community. But a new report finds that his upbringing was far more affluent than he's suggested. The New York Times reported Friday that McCormick — a former hedge fund executive who lived in Connecticut as recently as 2022 — has been cagey with voters about his childhood. McCormick has tweeted that he was "raised in Bloomsburg working on his family's farm," said on a 2022 podcast that he " started with nothing " and told CBS News that same year that he " didn't have anything " growing up as the son of two schoolteachers. But according to the Times , McCormick's father, Dr. James H. McCormick , was appointed president of what is now Bloomsburg University by Gov. Milton Schapp (D) in 1973. He moved his family into Buckalew Place — the official mansion for presidents of the school that currently spans 5...
Read more

'Uniquely egregious': Judge orders newspaper to delete editorial criticizing government

Image
Without even conducting a hearing, a Mississippi judge ordered a local newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing local officials over a lack of transparency. The Independent reported Wednesday that the Clarksdale Press-Register in Clarksdale, Mississippi has since deleted the editorial in question following an order handed down by Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Crystal Wise Martin. The editorial called out municipal leaders in Clarksdale for not properly notifying the public about a hearing on proposed tax increases. Judge Martin's order accused the paper of "reckless disregard of the truth," and asserted that the editorial disrupts the local government's "legitimate function to advocate for legislation they believe would help their municipality during this current legislative cycle." "The notice was posted at city hall as required by law and said stated the city would 'give appropriate notice thereof to the media,'" the editori...
Read more

Trump was hit by glass fragments — not a bullet: report

Image
Law enforcement officials have claimed to two different sources that former President Donald Trump was not grazed by a bullet but rather by glass shards. The officials in question told both Newsmax's Alex Salvi and Axios' Juliegrace Brufke that Trump was hit by glass shards that may have erupted from the shattering of a teleprompter that was hit by gunfire. Earlier on Saturday, law enforcement sources confirmed that the person suspected of firing a weapon at a Pennsylvania Trump rally had been killed, as had at least one person in the crowd. Videos showed Trump grabbing his neck after apparent gunshots had been fired before Secret Service agents pulled him to the ground. They then took him away in an armored vehicle to a hospital where he was treated for injuries. The identity of the shooting suspect has not yet been released. from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/ILgqr53 via sinceretalk
Read more