North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (left) and his attorney Jesse Binnall hold a news conference to announce a lawsuit against CNN and Louis Money of Greensboro in Raleigh, North Carolina on Oct. 15, 2024. (Photo by Galen Bacharier / NC Newsline)
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson sued CNN and a former clerk at a porn store in Greensboro on Tuesday, alleging that they defamed the Republican candidate for governor in news reports about him.
A CNN investigation published last month found that an account tied to Robinson had made a series of explicit racist and sexist comments on a pornography website. Robinson has denied that he made the comments, calling it “salacious tabloid trash.”
And in a separate report from the North Carolina online magazine The Assembly, a former employee at a Greensboro porn store, Louis Money, said Robinson frequented the establishment in the ’90s and early 2000s. His local band also produced a music video about Robinson allegedly owing him money from that time.
During a press conference held in front of the lieutenant governor’s residence, Robinson and his lawyer, Jesse Binnall, said the stories were tantamount to “election interference,” and represented a “high-tech lynching” — borrowing a term used by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearing when faced with allegations of sexual harassment.
“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.
The lawsuit, filed in Wake County court, comes weeks after Robinson first hired a lawyer and pledged to investigate the origin of the CNN report. He is seeking $50 million in damages from both Money and CNN.
Mark Robinson’s campaign hires attorney to investigate CNN report
The suit does not provide any explicit evidence that Robinson was not responsible for the online posts, which included comments from the account calling themselves a “black NAZI” and a “perv” and expressing support for reinstating slavery.
Binnall, a Virginia-based attorney who has previously represented former President Donald Trump in multiple cases stemming from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, said he had commissioned an investigative task force in the past weeks.
He called the lawsuit a “first step,” saying he and Robinson were refuting the CNN story as “false.” And he alleged that other people and organizations were involved in a conspiracy to hurt Robinson’s candidacy, but declined to name them.
The lawsuit alleges that CNN corroborated its reporting with data “apparently sourced from hacked, data breach files, obtained from the dark web.”
WRAL has reported that Robinson declined multiple offers for tech support to investigate the origin of the online posts.
CNN’s press office did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.
The lawsuit calls Money’s music video “a deliberate lie,” and said he had “concocted” a “fantasy … to embarrass and tear (Robinson) down, and to seek his own fifteen minutes of fame.”
Reached by phone Tuesday, Money laughed off the lawsuit. He didn’t plan to hire a lawyer, he said, but “I’m looking for a publicist.”
“Number one, I hope it gets Trailer Park Orchestra about 10,000 more extra views,” Money told NC Newsline. “Because all of this ain’t a news story unless my band puts out a music video about it.”
And he joked that he would counter-sue Robinson “for 25 dollars for the stolen porn he still owes me.”
“You can’t sue for me telling the truth,” Money said. “Are you allowed to print, ‘f— you?’” he said in response to Robinson’s suit.
Binnall’s investigative team reached out to staff at CNN, as well as the involved websites, but had been “stonewalled,” the attorney said. It remains to be seen how the lawsuit will proceed, and when a discovery period to make evidence public would begin.
Robinson is facing Attorney General Josh Stein in the race for governor. He will appear on the trail today, with town halls set for this afternoon in Davidson and Cabarrus counties, as Stein continues to campaign and holds a significant polling lead.
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