North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has filed a lawsuit against CNN following the network’s report alleging that he posted explicit racial and sexual comments on a pornography website’s message board. Robinson called the report reckless and defamatory.
The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court on Tuesday, comes less than four weeks after the CNN report led many GOP officials, including presidential candidate Donald Trump, to distance themselves from Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign. At a news conference in Raleigh, Robinson, accompanied by a Virginia-based attorney, denied writing the messages in question.
According to the lawsuit, CNN “chose to publish despite knowing or recklessly disregarding that Lt. Gov. Robinson’s data — including his name, date of birth, passwords, and the email address supposedly associated with the NudeAfrica account — were previously compromised by multiple data breaches.”
If elected, Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor. He described CNN’s report as a “high-tech lynching” targeting him because of political disagreements.
CNN first aired the report on September 19, claiming that Robinson posted statements on the message board over a decade ago. These statements allegedly included calling himself a “black NAZI,” expressing enjoyment of transgender pornography, preferring Adolf Hitler to then-President Barack Obama, and denouncing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.”
CNN reported that it linked the account to Robinson by comparing usernames, an email address, and other biographical details such as his age, length of marriage, and figures of speech similar to those used on his public Twitter profile. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.
READ ALSO: Mark Robinson criticized by Black pastors for reported remarks on Martin Luther King Jr.
Polls at the time of CNN’s report already showed Robinson trailing his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein. Early in-person voting begins Thursday, with over 57,000 absentee ballots already submitted.
Robinson’s lawsuit also names Louis Love Money, a Greensboro punk rock singer, as a defendant. Money alleged in a music video and interview that Robinson frequented a porn shop in the 1990s and 2000s where he purchased videos. Robinson denies the allegations, stating in the lawsuit, “Lt. Gov. Robinson was not spending hours at the video store, five nights a week. He was not renting or previewing videos, and he did not purchase ‘bootleg’ or other videos from Defendant Money.”
In a phone interview, Money stood by his claims, saying, “My story hasn’t changed.”
The lawsuit, seeking at least $50 million in damages, accuses CNN and Money of attempting to derail Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign but does not provide evidence of a coordinated effort. Robinson’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, who has represented former President Trump, indicated that they expect to uncover more “bad actors” as they pursue further legal action.
Following the CNN report, most of Robinson’s top campaign staff resigned, and the Republican Governors Association halted its support. In response, Robinson’s campaign has paused TV ads and shifted its focus to in-person events.
