North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson filed a lawsuit against CNN on Tuesday over a report alleging that he made controversial racist and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board over ten years ago. The complaint accuses the report of being reckless and defamatory, according to The Associated Press.
This development comes as Robinson is currently running for the state’s governor’s seat. The candidate has denied the details of the report.
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,” the lawsuit states, referencing the website.
Robinson, who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, called the report a “high-tech lynching” against a candidate “who has been targeted from Day 1 by folks who disagree with me politically and want to see me destroyed.”
CNN’s report alleged that Robinson, using the handle “minisoldr,” referred to himself as a “black NAZI” while expressing support for slavery and using derogatory language against civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He allegedly made these posts on a site called Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012.
Robinson also allegedly indicated that he enjoys pornography involving trans-identified individuals despite having publicly spoken out against gender ideology. The report suggests he also detailed spying on women in a gym shower while he was 14 years old.
In September, the candidate claimed CNN’s report was deceptive and indicated he would sue the news outlet.
We’re in talks right now, everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us. We are going after them, okay? We are going to go after them for what they’ve done. But we have five weeks left in this race, folks. Make no mistake about it: We are not going to let CNN throw us off of our mission.”
A number of his campaign staffers resigned shortly after the report was published.
Robinson also named a Greensboro punk rock band singer who claimed the candidate was a frequent customer at a porn shop at which the singer had been employed. The lawsuit seeks $50 million in damages and claims the allegations were “a coordinated attack aimed at derailing his campaign for governor.”
“We will use every tool at our disposal now that a lawsuit has been filed, including the subpoena power, in order to continue pursuing the facts,” Robinson’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told The Associated Press.
Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson’s opponent, has expanded his lead considerably since the report was published.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (D) is leading embattled Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) by 17 points in the gubernatorial race, according to a new survey.
The High Point University poll released Thursday shows Stein with 51 percent support compared to Robinson’s 34 percent among North Carolina’s likely voters. Some 11 percent were unsure, while 3 percent said they preferred someone else.
There was a similar gap among self-identified registered voters in the survey; Stein garnered a 19-point lead, 51 percent to 32 percent, over the lieutenant governor.
Former President Donald Trump had endorsed Robinson before the report was published and has not indicated whether he will rescind his support.
