Future legal path for Trump’s lawsuit against Iowa paper, pollster debated, judge pledges ruling soon

DES MOINES — Whether President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against an Iowa newspaper and pollster should continue into the discovery phase — which lawyers for the defendants argued would disproportionately favor Trump — will be decided soon, an Iowa judge said Friday.

Polk Co. Judge Scott J. Beattie, after hearing lawyers’ arguments, said Friday he will decide within two weeks whether the case can proceed to discovery — when lawyers are able to gather documents, information and testimony relevant to the case — or whether the case should be paused or dismissed altogether, as lawyers for the defendants have argued.

During a roughly 80-minute hearing Monday at the Polk County Courthouse, lawyers representing the Des Moines Register and former Iowa Poll pollster Ann Selzer argued the case should not proceed to discovery and criticized Trump’s legal arguments.

Trump filed the lawsuit over an Iowa Poll that was published days before the 2024 presidential election and showed Democrat Kamala Harris ahead of Trump in Iowa by 3 percentage points. Trump won Iowa by 13 percentage points on his way to winning the election.

Trump’s lawsuit alleges the Iowa Poll violates Iowa’s consumer fraud protections.

Defendants argue lawsuit ‘frivolous’

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Lawyers for the Register and Selzer argue the lawsuit is frivolous and without legal merit and represents a chilling attack on free press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“I’ve been practicing First Amendment law for over 40 years, and I can’t think of a case as frivolous as the one that we’re now dealing with,” Robert Corn-Revere, a lawyer with the First Amendment legal organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, said during the hearing.

“In my experience, there are two kinds of plaintiffs who file cases like this,” Corn-Revere said. “One, pro se plaintiffs (someone who files a lawsuit on their own behalf without legal representation) who don’t know anything about the law, and secondly those who do know better but file lawsuits to abuse the court system for illegitimate purposes.”

Added Nick Klinefeldt, a lawyer for the Register and its parent company Gannett, which also publishes USA Today, “What plaintiffs are bringing here is a grievance, not a legal claim.”

The defendants’ lawyers argued against allowing the case to proceed into discovery because it would be difficult for the state court to compel the president to submit testimony and documents, leading to an uneven legal playing field that would heavily favor Trump.

“Asymmetrical discovery really amounts to an investigation. And it’s not just an investigation; it’s an investigation of the press — the effect, if not the purpose, of which is to intimidate. Well, the Des Moines Register and USA Today will not be intimidated,” Klinefeldt said.

The Register and Gannett seek to have the case dismissed and argued the next legal step should be consideration of a motion to dismiss.

FIRE argues the case should be stayed — temporarily paused — until after Trump leaves the White House. Although Corn-Revere said the group also agrees with the Register’s arguments and would support a complete dismissal of the case.

Trump lawyers argue case should proceed

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Alan Ostergren, an Iowa-based attorney for Trump’s legal team, told the judge that discovery in the case would proceed like any other: that Trump’s team would submit to legally appropriate requests, would work with defendants’ attorneys on any disagreements, and that the judge would rule on any stalemates.

Ostergren also argued that a case should not be delayed or dismissed simply because discovery could prove difficult.

“I do want to push back on the idea of, ‘How are we going to handle the president not doing things that he’s supposed to do?’ I want to push firmly back on that notion. I’m confident we can get through the entire discovery process in a way that honors our rules and process,” Ostergren said. “I’m not indulging in the idea that this is going to be a messy discovery fight from our end. So long as discovery requests are made in a thoughtful, appropriate way, we can confer and work together.”

Beattie appeared sympathetic to the defendants’ argument, posing the question to Ostergren and suggesting that he would have limited tools to compel Trump’s cooperation.

“I don’t have a lot of tools to help with the discovery disputes in this case because of the nature of it. Unlike a normal litigant — a normal litigant before the court, if I threaten to put him in jail for six months, it means something. Here, it’s not probably going to mean much if I were to say that, or in the unlikely event that I would have to get to that point,” Beattie said to Ostergren. “So what tools do I even have to assist the production of documents if there is a dispute?”

History of Trump v Iowa Poll

Trump first sued over the pre-election Iowa Poll in state court in December of 2024. Lawyers for the Register were granted a request to move that lawsuit to federal court. Trump asked the federal courts to dismiss that lawsuit and refiled his lawsuit in the state courts on June 30, 2025 — one day before the enactment of a new state law that allows defendants to request expedited dismissal of lawsuits that they argue are intended to squelch free speech. A federal judge rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the federal lawsuit, but that ruling was overturned by a 2-1 ruling on appeal.

In January of 2025, a separate but similar lawsuit was filed in federal court by a West Des Moines individual on behalf of Register subscribers. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in November; the individual has appealed the ruling. Lawyers on Friday argued whether the ruling in that case should apply to the ongoing case in state court, and whether the state judge should wait for the federal appeals court ruling before allowing the state case to proceed.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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