North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson sued CNN for defamation over the outlet’s report last month that Robinson made inappropriate comments on a pornographic website, including referring to himself as a “Black Nazi,” disparaging Martin Luther King Jr. and using antisemitic and homophobic slurs—comments Robinson denies writing.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, left, speaks at a news conference with his attorney Jesse ... [+]
Robinson said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court on Tuesday, that CNN’s report was “a malicious hit job” and a “coordinated attack aimed at derailing his campaign for governor.”
On Sept. 19 CNN published an article alleging Robinson “made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board” prior to entering politics, a number of which contradict his current political stances.
Robinson denied he made the comments and told CNN they were “manufactured … salacious tabloid lies.”
In the suit, Robinson alleges CNN falsely attributed the statements made on a porn site to him, based its report on “data from a dubious website” and supposed corroboration from unverified data he said was “apparently sourced from hacked, data breach files, obtained from the dark web.”
The suit also named Louis Love Money—who Robinson said falsely claimed he was a “frequent customer” at a pornographic video story Money worked at in the 1990s and 2000s—as a defendant.
Forbes has reached out to CNN for comment on the suit.
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$50 million. That’s how much Robinson is seeking in damages “for the reputation harm that has been done to Lt. Gov. Robinson’s good name,” his attorney, Jesse Binnall, said at a press conference announcing the suit Tuesday.
“Our investigation has shown … that there were a number of inconsistencies that were used that went beyond journalistic standards in the way that CNN performed their reporting,” Binnall said when asked if they could prove CNN’s article was false. He went on to say not verifying information from data breaches and the dark web and presenting it as truth equates to “reckless disregard for the truth” and shows actual malice, which is the legal standard for proving defamation against a public figure.
Robinson began his political career in 2018 after he gave a pro-gun speech before city council that went viral and was widely shared by conservative outlets. He was elected to be North Carolina’s lieutenant governor in 2020, has been a supporter of former President Donald Trump and launched his gubernatorial campaign last year. The CNN report—which Robinson has continued to deny—almost immediately had repercussions to his campaign. In the days after the article was published, most senior members of Robinson’s campaign resigned and his chief of staff in the lieutenant governor’s office resigned. The Republican Governors Association said it would not support any future ad placements for Robinson, and multiple North Carolina Republicans said they would need to turn their focus elsewhere if Robinson couldn’t provide evidence contradicting the report, the Associated Press reported. CNN said in the article it was able to match the profile on the pornographic site to Robinson because the profile and comments made “offered numerous details that align precisely with Robinson’s personal history,” including his full name, private email and details about his marriage.
Robinson was known for his history of controversial comments even before the CNN article was published last month. He has said transgender women should be arrested for using women’s bathrooms, said abortion is “about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down,” suggested the Holocaust was a hoax, and more (Robinson called his past remarks “poorly worded” but denied making antisemitic comments).