NC’s Mark Robinson sues CNN for $50 million over story revealing porn website posts
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, announced Tuesday that he is suing CNN for its report last month tying him to a series of racist, disturbing and sexually graphic comments on an online pornography forum.
“This is a high-tech lynching on a candidate who has been targeted from day one by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed,” Robinson said at a press conference in Raleigh. “We are glad to take these first steps to fight back against what we consider to be one of the greatest examples of political interference in this state’s history.”
The lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, seeks $50 million in damages, alleging that CNN intentionally defamed Robinson with its report, which he has called “salacious tabloid lies.”
The lawsuit comes nearly a month after CNN published its story, which tied Robinson to online comments on a website called Nude Africa that included saying he was a “Black NAZI” and would buy enslaved people if slavery came back.
Amid the fallout from CNN’s report, most of Robinson’s campaign staff and half of his official staff resigned, and the national Republican Governors Association withdrew its financial support.
“When times of trouble come in this thing we call politics, it separates the strong folks from the weak,” Robinson said Tuesday. “The weak will turn and run, and the strong will stand and fight — and that’s what we’re doing here today. We’re standing and fighting regardless of who turned and ran away from us, regardless of who doesn’t believe us.”
Robinson announced the hiring of the Binnall Law Firm to investigate CNN last month as top Republican officials publicly said that Robinson needed to show proof that the report was inaccurate.
Jesse Binnall, Robinson’s attorney, called the report a “journalistic hit job” on Tuesday and said the “posts could have been made by anyone.”
The lawsuit does not provide specific evidence as proof that CNN’s report was false, but says that the data came from a dubious website and was “apparently sourced from hacked, data breach files, obtained from the dark web.”
Binnall said that more information will come forward as part of the discovery process in the lawsuit.
In defamation cases, public figures must prove not only that the reporting was false, but also that the defendant either knew the information was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
CNN’s report tied Robinson to the comments using biographical data shared by the Nude Africa account “minisoldr,” a username Robinson had used on other internet accounts.
Shortly after CNN’s story came out, POLITICO reported that the minisoldr account had accessed the website from an IP address close to Robinson’s home in Greensboro.
Louis Love Money, the source for a separate story from The Assembly who said that Robinson was a frequent customer at his pornography shop, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit denies that Robinson rented or previewed videos at Money’s store. Rather, it claims that Robinson, “who has always been a gregarious, outgoing person,” visited the store because he worked at the Papa John’s nearby and would bring Money pizza and socialize with him.
This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 10:16 AM with the headline "NC’s Mark Robinson sues CNN for $50 million over story revealing porn website posts."
