A federal district court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to voluntarily dismiss his lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, a setback to the president as he attempts to move his claims against the newspaper to state court.
Trump sued the Register; its parent company, Gannett; and its former pollster, J. Ann Selzer, in December 2024 over an Iowa Poll released shortly before the Nov. 5 presidential election that allegedly overstated Iowa’s support for Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump claims in his suit that the poll’s publication amounted to election interference and violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
Fight is over whether to proceed in state or federal court
The suit was initially filed in state court, and attorneys for Gannett filed to have it moved to federal court under a federal procedure allowing them to do so before being served. Gannett and Selzer had also filed motions to dismiss the original lawsuit, arguing Trump’s claims were legally unsupported and ran afoul of the First Amendment.
Trump sought to have the case returned to an Iowa court, and filed an amended complaint adding two Iowa plaintiffs, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, Republicans who alleged they were likewise harmed by the Iowa Poll.
On May 23, a federal judge denied Trump’s motion to remand the case and rejected the amended complaint, dismissing Zaun and Miller-Meeks from the case. Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled that it was inappropriate to add parties to the case simply to defeat federal court jurisdiction.
Trump appealed that decision, but on Monday, June 30, he filed a notice seeking to voluntarily dismiss his federal case in its entirety, and filed a new, substantially identical lawsuit in state court, joined again by Zaun and Miller-Meeks.
Dismissal improper while appeal pending, judge rules
Gannett and Selzer responded with motions to strike Trump’s dismissal, arguing the district court lacks jurisdiction to end the case while an appeal is pending. Gannett also cited several appellate cases to argue that “part(ies) may not dismiss simply to avoid an adverse decision or seek a more favorable forum.”
And it accused Trump of trying to move the case back to state court on Monday to avoid a new law, which took effect Tuesday, granting defendants additional rights against so-called “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs.
In his response Wednesday, Trump disputed all those procedural arguments. Federal court rules permit plaintiffs to dismiss their cases “as a matter of right” if the defendants have not yet filed an answer or motion for summary judgment. As of Monday, neither Gannett nor Selzer had done so. Both have filed answers in the past two days.
As for the pending appeal, Trump argued that while he had sought permission from the Eighth Circuit to appeal, the circuit court had not yet granted it, and thus there is no appeal to deprive the district court of jurisdiction.
And Trump dismissed Gannett’s reference to Iowa’s new anti-SLAPP law as an “undeveloped argument,” disputing that “an inapplicable change in state law has any bearing on the plaintiffs right to dismiss their case” under federal court rules.
In a late-afternoon ruling Wednesday, Ebinger sided with Gannett and held that Trump’s move to dismiss the case while an appeal is pending is procedurally improper.
“Because Trump’s appeal confers jurisdiction to the Eighth Circuit over aspects of this case, Trump must first dismiss the appeal before voluntarily dismissing the district court case,” she wrote.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump’s Des Moines Register suit to stay in federal court, judge rules