Trump sues over Iowa poll with surprise Harris lead

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has sued a pollster and newspaper over survey results published days before the US election showing him behind in Iowa -- a state he ultimately won by a wide margin.

The president-elect´s highly unusual complaint was filed on Monday evening in the central US state, and names the famed pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register and parent company Gannett as defendants.

The Republican billionaire “seeks accountability for brazen election interference committed by the Defendants in favor of now-defeated former Democrat candidate Kamala Harris,” he argued in court documents seen by AFP.

Selzer´s poll, released in the final weekend of campaigning before the November 5 vote, showed Harris leading Trump in Iowa by three points.

The poll was a shock given Trump´s easy victories there in 2016 and 2020, and boosted Democratic hopes that other surveys showing an exceedingly tight race were actually overestimating the Republican´s support.

Trump went on to win Iowa by 13 points, dealing a devastating blow to Selzer´s reputation and prompting claims by Trump of alleged wrongdoing. “In my opinion, it was fraud and it was election interference,” he told a press conference on Monday.