Iowa
Judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Des Moines Register and pollster
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president’s claim that the newspaper’s poll coverage violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law.
Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its “faulty” claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that “can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.” He sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the newspaper in affirming that the poll and coverage of it were constitutionally protected political speech, not a commercial product.
The ruling Wednesday came hours after a judge heard arguments but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Trump banned the three outlets last Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.”
After the ruling in Iowa Wednesday, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president will take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Trump filed the lawsuit against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s parent company in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results to damage him and help Democrats, saying coverage of polls is not protected speech.
Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations accusing them of bias, calling into question the boundaries of free speech protections, particularly for the press. Some of those lawsuits have ended in settlements.
Selzer’s case was taken up by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She said Wednesday she was grateful for the ruling, which “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”
“Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome,” Selzer said in a statement.
Selzer’s attorneys at FIRE and her co-defendants also celebrated the ruling.
“Today is a victory for the First Amendment — and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy,” Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA Today Co. chief legal counsel, said in a statement. USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett, owns The Register.
In dismissing the case, Beattie wrote that Trump’s lawsuit sought to “stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.” After hearing the arguments, the judge concluded the constitutional protection “is too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.”
Beattie said the case would have to be dismissed even if, solely for the purpose of deciding the motions, he accepted the Trump team’s allegations that the poll was intentionally skewed and its results fabricated. “Even with this assumption, each of the three counts still fails,” the judge wrote, because the lawsuit did not meet the legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception.
The poll, conducted by Selzer’s company in the final days of October and released just days before Election Day 2024, showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, capturing 47% of Iowa likely voters, to Trump’s 44%. Trump ultimately won the support of 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted.
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, both Republicans, had joined Trump’s lawsuit.
Trump, Miller-Meeks and Zaun alleged the misleading coverage diminished their reputations, valuable time in the final days of the campaign, and campaign funds and resources.
Florida
Lawyer: Ex-NFL star to avoid prison with reduced charge in attempted murder case in Miami
Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown plans to accept a plea deal that will have him avoid prison time on a reduced charge in an attempted murder case in Miami. His lawyer said Wednesday the agreement with prosecutors was too good to turn down.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 to make the deal final. Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said Brown will plead no contest to aggravated assault. He will be sentenced to probation, and adjudication will be withheld, meaning Brown will not be considered a convicted felon, the attorney said. Brown could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the original attempted murder charge.
Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
Attorney insists that Brown would have prevailed at trial
“This was not an easy decision,” Eiglarsh said in a statement Wednesday. “Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial. But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”
Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.
Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, called the plea deal fair.
“We are satisfied that justice is served. My client maintains what he said previously: that he forgives Brown and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” Cooper said in an email Wednesday. “We wish Mr. Brown good health and that he grows from this event.”
Nantambu’s attorneys have said he’d decided to forgive Brown
In a previous statement, his attorneys said Nantambu, a devout Muslim, had made the decision to forgive Brown after “considerable reflection, prayer, and consultation with his family and counsel.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Wednesday, with spokesperson Ed Griffith saying the details would be “fully clarified” at next week’s hearing.
Brown has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and that others were trying to steal jewelry from him.
Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay, including winning a Super Bowl championship with quarterback Tom Brady. He spent much of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, counting punt returns and one pass.
Brown has faced legal problems over the years
Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June 2025.
Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents. During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.
In a separate case, Nantambu was found guilty earlier this year of a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer after police said he disrupted Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance in 2025. Nantambu was among dozens of dancers on the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when he ran across the field with a Sudanese flag that read “Sudan and Free Gaza.” He surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was obtained.
North Carolina
Florida authorities arrest NC State’s ex-head trainer accused of sex abuse of Wolfpack male athletes
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Authorities in Florida have arrested N.C. State’s former director of sports medicine, who was accused of sexually abusing former Wolfpack male athletes under the guise of treatment, which previously led to more than 30 athletes outlining allegations in civil lawsuits.
Robert M. Murphy Jr. was arrested Wednesday night and was being held in the Marion County jail on out-of-state fugitive warrants from North Carolina. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office listed 23 charges of sexual battery and nine for felony sexual contact on its online database as of Thursday morning but offered no additional details.
ESPN was first to report Murphy’s arrest.
Jared Hammett and Seth Blum, two Raleigh-based attorneys who have represented Murphy in the civil lawsuits, didn’t immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The case originated with a federal civil lawsuit from a single athlete filed four years ago. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, such as improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.
The case eventually landed in state court in 2025 with 14 former Wolfpack athletes, with that number growing to 31 joining the lawsuit by February outlining similar allegations.
In June, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against Murphy and multiple N.C. State athletics officials tied to their oversight roles, citing procedural reasons such as the statute of limitations expiring in claims dating back as early as 2013. Attorneys for the players had appealed that dismissal.
All but two of those 31 athletes were “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect their identity, while two former men’s soccer players were named.
One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, told the AP that the number of athletes who have contacted players’ attorneys with similar allegations has grown to 35.
Attorneys for Murphy have denied any wrongdoing by their client in previous comments. That notably included Blum forcefully defending his client after the lawsuit moved to state court last fall, saying Murphy had been falsely accused and there was yet to be “one scrap of credible evidence he assaulted anyone.”
The judge’s dismissal of the civil case in June had covered claims against multiple athletics officials, such as former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan on jurisdictional grounds. That ruling stated any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state agency that deals with workplace matters because N.C. State is a public university — rather than civil court.
Judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Des Moines Register and pollster
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge on Wednesday dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race, rejecting the president’s claim that the newspaper’s poll coverage violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law.
Calling the case extraordinary, Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie said that allowing the lawsuit and its “faulty” claims to proceed could have a chilling effect that “can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs.” He sided with pollster J. Ann Selzer and the newspaper in affirming that the poll and coverage of it were constitutionally protected political speech, not a commercial product.
The ruling Wednesday came hours after a judge heard arguments but did not rule from the bench in a case on Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds. Trump banned the three outlets last Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.”
After the ruling in Iowa Wednesday, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president will take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Trump filed the lawsuit against Selzer, The Des Moines Register and the newspaper’s parent company in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results to damage him and help Democrats, saying coverage of polls is not protected speech.
Trump and his team have filed several lawsuits against media organizations accusing them of bias, calling into question the boundaries of free speech protections, particularly for the press. Some of those lawsuits have ended in settlements.
Selzer’s case was taken up by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She said Wednesday she was grateful for the ruling, which “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”
“Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome,” Selzer said in a statement.
Selzer’s attorneys at FIRE and her co-defendants also celebrated the ruling.
“Today is a victory for the First Amendment — and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy,” Polly Grunfeld Sack, USA Today Co. chief legal counsel, said in a statement. USA Today Co., formerly known as Gannett, owns The Register.
In dismissing the case, Beattie wrote that Trump’s lawsuit sought to “stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.” After hearing the arguments, the judge concluded the constitutional protection “is too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.”
Beattie said the case would have to be dismissed even if, solely for the purpose of deciding the motions, he accepted the Trump team’s allegations that the poll was intentionally skewed and its results fabricated. “Even with this assumption, each of the three counts still fails,” the judge wrote, because the lawsuit did not meet the legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception.
The poll, conducted by Selzer’s company in the final days of October and released just days before Election Day 2024, showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, capturing 47% of Iowa likely voters, to Trump’s 44%. Trump ultimately won the support of 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted.
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Sen. Brad Zaun, both Republicans, had joined Trump’s lawsuit.
Trump, Miller-Meeks and Zaun alleged the misleading coverage diminished their reputations, valuable time in the final days of the campaign, and campaign funds and resources.
Florida
Lawyer: Ex-NFL star to avoid prison with reduced charge in attempted murder case in Miami
Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown plans to accept a plea deal that will have him avoid prison time on a reduced charge in an attempted murder case in Miami. His lawyer said Wednesday the agreement with prosecutors was too good to turn down.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 to make the deal final. Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said Brown will plead no contest to aggravated assault. He will be sentenced to probation, and adjudication will be withheld, meaning Brown will not be considered a convicted felon, the attorney said. Brown could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the original attempted murder charge.
Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
Attorney insists that Brown would have prevailed at trial
“This was not an easy decision,” Eiglarsh said in a statement Wednesday. “Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial. But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”
Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.
Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, called the plea deal fair.
“We are satisfied that justice is served. My client maintains what he said previously: that he forgives Brown and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” Cooper said in an email Wednesday. “We wish Mr. Brown good health and that he grows from this event.”
Nantambu’s attorneys have said he’d decided to forgive Brown
In a previous statement, his attorneys said Nantambu, a devout Muslim, had made the decision to forgive Brown after “considerable reflection, prayer, and consultation with his family and counsel.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Wednesday, with spokesperson Ed Griffith saying the details would be “fully clarified” at next week’s hearing.
Brown has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and that others were trying to steal jewelry from him.
Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay, including winning a Super Bowl championship with quarterback Tom Brady. He spent much of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, counting punt returns and one pass.
Brown has faced legal problems over the years
Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June 2025.
Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents. During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.
In a separate case, Nantambu was found guilty earlier this year of a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer after police said he disrupted Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance in 2025. Nantambu was among dozens of dancers on the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when he ran across the field with a Sudanese flag that read “Sudan and Free Gaza.” He surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was obtained.
North Carolina
Florida authorities arrest NC State’s ex-head trainer accused of sex abuse of Wolfpack male athletes
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Authorities in Florida have arrested N.C. State’s former director of sports medicine, who was accused of sexually abusing former Wolfpack male athletes under the guise of treatment, which previously led to more than 30 athletes outlining allegations in civil lawsuits.
Robert M. Murphy Jr. was arrested Wednesday night and was being held in the Marion County jail on out-of-state fugitive warrants from North Carolina. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office listed 23 charges of sexual battery and nine for felony sexual contact on its online database as of Thursday morning but offered no additional details.
ESPN was first to report Murphy’s arrest.
Jared Hammett and Seth Blum, two Raleigh-based attorneys who have represented Murphy in the civil lawsuits, didn’t immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The case originated with a federal civil lawsuit from a single athlete filed four years ago. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, such as improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.
The case eventually landed in state court in 2025 with 14 former Wolfpack athletes, with that number growing to 31 joining the lawsuit by February outlining similar allegations.
In June, a judge dismissed the lawsuit against Murphy and multiple N.C. State athletics officials tied to their oversight roles, citing procedural reasons such as the statute of limitations expiring in claims dating back as early as 2013. Attorneys for the players had appealed that dismissal.
All but two of those 31 athletes were “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect their identity, while two former men’s soccer players were named.
One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, told the AP that the number of athletes who have contacted players’ attorneys with similar allegations has grown to 35.
Attorneys for Murphy have denied any wrongdoing by their client in previous comments. That notably included Blum forcefully defending his client after the lawsuit moved to state court last fall, saying Murphy had been falsely accused and there was yet to be “one scrap of credible evidence he assaulted anyone.”
The judge’s dismissal of the civil case in June had covered claims against multiple athletics officials, such as former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan on jurisdictional grounds. That ruling stated any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state agency that deals with workplace matters because N.C. State is a public university — rather than civil court.
