by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
July 3, 2025
Amid allegations of “gamesmanship” and forum shopping, a federal judge has blocked, at least for now, President Donald Trump’s attempt to move his lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and its pollster out of federal court and into state court.
Noting that Trump recently filed an appeal on one specific issue within the federal lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger found that because the president’s appeal had conferred jurisdiction of the case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, he must first dismiss that appeal before voluntarily dismissing the underlying lawsuit.
For now, that means the president and his lawyers are pursuing the same legal case against the newspaper and pollster Ann Selzer in both state court and federal court.
